Parliamentarians worldwide renew call for Mark Zuckerberg to appear before international joint committee in London

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, Member of Parliament and Chair of the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, have been joined by Committee Chairs from Australia, Argentina and Ireland in calling on Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, to appear before a special international joint committee on disinformation and ‘fake news’.

Last week Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Collins called on Mr. Zuckerberg to give testimony at a hearing in London on November 27. Facebook has declined this invitation.

“I am growing increasingly troubled by the lack of respect Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook continue to show our nations and the citizens we represent by once again declining our calls to give testimony,” said Mr. Zimmer. “There are still many unanswered questions and new concerning revelations that I believe only Mr. Zuckerberg, as CEO of Facebook, can respond to. Just this week came news that Facebook had pulled down 115 accounts from its platforms that ‘may be engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour’.”

“By rejecting our calls to appear, it calls into question how seriously Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook take protecting our citizens’ privacy and ‘fake news’ vulnerabilities,” Mr. Zimmer continued. “That is why I am once again adding my name to the growing list of Parliamentarians from around the world who are calling on Mr. Zuckerberg to answer our questions in person.”

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