Digital Platform Executives Called To Appear Before the Second Meeting of the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and ‘Fake News’

OTTAWA – Canada’s Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics has invited executives from several digital platforms to testify at the second meeting of the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and ‘Fake News’ which it is hosting in Ottawa on May 28.

Invitations have been sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and former Executive Chair Eric Schmidt, Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and CEO of AWS Andrew Jassy, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, and Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel.

“I am hopeful that these executives will take advantage of this unique opportunity to speak to representatives from around the globe about what their platforms are doing to ensure the privacy of our citizens,” said Bob Zimmer, MP and Chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. “I am also looking forward to hearing from them about what is being done to stop the spread of disinformation and how they are protecting users from the threats of manipulation online.”

“It is vitally important that we hear from these top executives so that we can get the answers we’ve been seeking,” Mr. Zimmer continued. “We will not be accepting testimony from regional representatives at this meeting, as previous experience has shown that their answers have proven to be frankly inadequate.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declined several requests to appear before the inaugural meeting of the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and ‘Fake News’ which took place in London, UK on November 27, 2018.

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