Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the United States House Commerce Committee on April 11 on his “company’s use and protection of user data”, CNN Money reported on Wednesday.
The social media company has been facing tremendous criticism after it came to light that it had known British firm Cambridge Analytica had been harvesting the data of Facebook users for years. Cambridge Analytica is accused of using the information of 50 million Facebook users to help the campaign of US President Donald Trump before the 2016 election.
“This hearing will be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues and help all Americans better understand what happens to their personal information online,” said Greg Walden, chairperson of the House committee, and Frank Pallone, a member.
In full-page advertisements in several newspapers in the United Kingdom and United States, Facebook has apologised for the data breach scandal. “I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” read the advertisement signed by Zuckerberg. After admitting to the “breach of trust”, the company had introduced new privacy tools.
The committees of commerce and judiciary of the US Senate also want Zuckerberg to testify before them, the BBC reported. The US Federal Trade Commission is also investigating whether the social media firm indulged in unfair acts that caused substantial damage to consumers.
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