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Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declined an invitation to speak about fake news and data privacy in front government officials from the UK and Canada, officials from those countries said in a signed letter Wednesday. Three more countries are also joining in the call for Zuckerberg to appear.
Late last month, UK and Canadian government officials called on CEO Mark Zuckerberg to attend a “special joint parliamentary hearing” in London on Nov. 27 that they called “an ‘international grand committee’ on disinformation and fake news.” Now, officials from Argentina, Australia and Ireland have joined the call according to the latest letter, which said Facebook declined the original invitation on Nov. 2, the officials said.
According to the government letter, Facebook told the officials it “fully recognise[s] the seriousness of these issues and remain committed to working with [your committee] to provide any additional relevant information you require.”
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Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment on this article.
“We are very disappointed by this dismissive response,” the signatories wrote. Zuckerberg should give the 170 million collective users in these countries “the same line of accountability” that they gave users in the US and European Union by showing up to confront lawmakers directly, they said, restating their invitation for the chief executive to attend the Nov. 27 hearing.
