Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called to appear at unprecedented international joint hearing by Canadian and Westminster parliamentarians

OTTAWA – Bob Zimmer, Member of Parliament for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies and Chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, as well as Damian Collins, MP and Chair of the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, have sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting that he appear before an international committee formed by Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Collins to examine disinformation and ‘fake news’.

The hearing on Tuesday, November 27 at the Westminster Parliament, will allow collaborative scrutiny by members of the national committees of both the Westminster Parliament and the Parliament of Canada in their studies into digital policy including disinformation, digital vulnerabilities, and the potential threats to our democracies. Other parliaments are also being invited to attend the session.

Both committees have separately requested Mr. Zuckerberg appear before their respective committees to discuss the breach of personal information involving Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, as well as subsequent breaches, however none of these previous requests were successful.

“We have asked Mr. Zuckerberg to appear at our committees several times and expect him to show respect for both of our great nations by appearing at this hearing to answer for his platform’s practices,” said Mr. Zimmer.

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