Zuckerberg not to testify before British lawmakers
Under fire in various countries for misuse of data on Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg has chosen not to appear before a British parliamentary committee that had summoned him, but has instead asked one of his two senior-most executives to do so.
In a letter to Damian Collins, chairman of the digital, culture, media and sports committee, Rebecca Stimson, head of public policy at Facebook UK, said Zuckerberg had “personally asked” one of his deputies to give evidence before the committee.
The two named in the letter are Mike Schroepfer, chief technology officer, and Chris Cox, chief product officer. Stimson said both report to Zuckerberg and were well placed to answer the committee’s questions on the complex issue.
The issue relates to misuse of personal data on Facebook reportedly exploited by political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) during the last US elections. CA whistleblower Christopher Wylie deposed before the committee on Monday.
Before Wylie’s deposition, Collins repeated his call for Zuckerberg to give evidence to the committee either in person or by video link: “We believe, given the serious nature of the allegations that have been made around the access and use of Facebook user data, that it is appropriate that Mark Zuckerberg should give evidence to the committee”.
“He has suggested that Chris Cox, the chief product officer at Facebook, could come to London to give evidence to the committee in the first week after the Easter recess. So we would be very
LONDON:
Facebook Inc. is heading toward its worst month since May 2013 after an analyst report warned of a temporary pullback in advertising and the FTC confirmed it’s investigating the social network’s privacy practices.
The stock fell 1.4% to $157.14 at 2:35pm Monday in New York, bucking the broader positive direction of the markets. Earlier, the shares fell as much as 6.5%, erasing about $100 billion in market value in the past 10 days.
Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., wrote that the firm’s latest social media survey indicates “some moderation in Facebook usage,” and notes potential for brands and small and medium-sized
NEW YORK:
happy to invite Mr Cox to give evidence. However, we would still like to hear from Mr Zuckerberg as well.”
Collins added: “We will seek to clarify from Facebook whether he is available to give evidence or not, because that wasn’t clear from our correspondence. If he is available to give evidence then we would be happy to do that either in person or by video link, if that would be more convenient for him.”
Stimson set out six steps in the letter that Facebook had undertaken after the controversy broke out, and said ongoing analysis businesses to “pause some Facebook campaigns until headlines subside.” He lowered his price target to $210 from $225 while saying shares remain attractive for investors with medium to longterm time horizons.
to remedy the situation includes providing country-wise data on the number of people affected by an app developed by a Cambridge academic.
She said: “There will be two sets of data. The first is people who downloaded the app, and the second is the number of friends of those people who had their privacy settings set in such a way that the app could see some of their data”.
“This second figure will be much higher than the first and we will look to provide both broken down by country as soon as we can”, she added.