Mark Zuckerberg Will Not Testify in UK Parliament Despite Arrest Threats

• Mark Zuckerberg will no appear in the UK Parliament despite arrest threats being produced over data privacy breaches.
• Facebook’s head of public policy Rebecca Stimson mentioned that the Facebook CEO has no plans of appearing before the UK Parliament currently.
• Zuckerberg has already missed the deadline by three days and may face consequences from the UK government soon.

Facebook’s head of public policy Rebecca Stimson made a statement that Mark Zuckerberg has no plans to testify in front of the UK Parliament currently. The Facebook CEO was summoned for the company’s recent data privacy scandals by the UK Parliament, and he has already missed his deadline by three days.

Zuckerberg made his appearance before the US Congress and European lawmakers but chose not to appear before the UK Parliament. The Digital Culture, Media and Sports Committee threated Zuckerberg that he would be forced to enter the UK if he did not come on his own.

Image Courtesy of Gizmodo

Chief Technical Officer Mike Schroepfer appeared before the Parliament in place of Zuckerberg, but the committee was not pleased by the move. They mentioned that the committee found Schroepfer's responses to questions lacking and asked Zuckerberg to appear or the Facebook CEO will face the consequences. The UK committee wants Mark Zuckerberg to appear before them to address topics like data privacy practices, election ads, censorship, and propaganda.

Facebook made an official statement through Rebecca Stimson, who stated the company finds the request to summon Mark Zuckerberg completely unreasonable as the social media company has already held multiple meetings and evidence sessions in response to the recent scandals. Facebook’s stance on data privacy and data handling have already been made clear in their recent public appearances in front of legal entities as well as the F8 conference. The social media company also published multiple Facebook Newsroom posts explaining how data is handled and how the company seeks to prevent data misuse in the future. Stimson posted 17 pages of responses to questions that Schroepfer did not answer in the UK.

It is likely that the social media giant wants to prevent Mark Zuckerberg meeting the council because the UK committee has proven to be more technically sound than other legal entities. The testimony may prove to be difficult for Facebook.