After Zuckerberg’s Congress hearing, Facebook awaits further scrutiny

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., listens during a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018.

Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg spent two days this week facing scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers, but the social network he helped create isn’t in the clear just yet.

The firm’s billionaire co-founder told lawmakers at the two-day Congress hearing of how his own data had been compromised as a result of the data scandal haunting the company. He said the company failed to notify the Federal Trade Commission about the leak of users’ data to controversial political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

Now Facebook faces further scrutiny in Europe.

Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfner is due to appear before U.K. lawmakers later this month to address the ongoing data scandal enshrouding the company. Stepping in for the firm’s CEO, Schroepfner will face questions from the U.K. Digital, Media, Culture and Sport select committee, chaired by Damian Collins, on April 26.

British lawmakers still want to hear from the Facebook boss, however. After Zuckerberg declined an invitation to appear before British lawmakers, Collins, a parliamentarian from Britain’s governing Conservative Party, sent Facebook a letter insisting that Zuckerberg give evidence before the committee.

Facebook has admitted that the data of 87 million users’ profiles — even Zuckerberg’s — may have been shared without their permission to controversial political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. The social network has been letting users know whether their data was compromised since Monday.

“People will seek to clarify the converging testimonies, especially on the more technical aspects where he (Zuckerberg) was obscuring and giving evasive answers,” Paul-Olivier Dehaye, co-founder of PersonalData.IO, told CNBC in a phone interview.

Some commentators have said that U.S. politicians did not ask difficult enough questions to the Facebook CEO. That is something that could change when Schroepfner gives evidence, Dehaye said.