British lawmakers may issue a summons ordering Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to answer questions before Parliament about the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, the chair of U.K. House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said Tuesday.
Damian Collins, a Conservative who heads the House committee, said U.K. lawmakers are prepared to send a summons compelling Mr. Zuckerberg’s appearance in London unless he volunteers to provide oral testimony to investigators, according to a copy of the letter released by Parliament.
“While Mr. Zuckerberg does not normally come under the jurisdiction of the U.K. parliament, he will do so the next time he enters the country,” Mr. Collins wrote in a letter addressed to Rebecca Stimson, Facebook’s regional head of public policy.
“We hope that he will respond positively to our request, but if not the Committee will resolve to issue a formal summons for him to appear when he is next in the U.K.,” he wrote.
Facebook did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Officials in the U.K. and U.S. have opened inquiries into Facebook and its privacy policies after it was revealed in March that Cambridge Analytica, a British-based political consulting firm, had amassed the personal information of 87 million Facebook users without their permission.
Mr. Zuckerberg testified about the scandal last month before lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate, but declined an invitation to appear before Parliament and instead dispatched the social network’s chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, to field questions from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, albeit not to Mr. Collins’ satisfaction.
“Mr. Schroepfer failed to answer fully on nearly 40 separate points,” Mr. Collins wrote Tuesday. “This is especially disappointing to the Committee considering that in his testimony to Congress Mark Zuckerberg also failed to give convincing answers to some questions.”
Mr. Zuckerberg may be traveling abroad to speak with members of the European Parliament this month, Politico reported last week, and Mr. Collins’ committee “would like Mr. Zuckerberg to come to London during his European trip,” his letter said.
Facebook maintains over 40 million users in the U.K., Mr. Collins wrote, “and they deserve to hear accurate answers from the company he created and whether it is able to keep their users’ data safe.”
Mr. Zuckerberg risks being held in contempt of Parliament if he refuses a summons to appear, The Guardian reported.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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