EU leaders push privacy protection

BRUSSELS: EU leaders are pressing tech giants to fully protect Europeans’ personal data after the scandal over information harvested from Facebook that some in Brussels warn also threatens democracy.

The leaders of the 28-nation European Union stressed privacy concerns rather than broader political fears, including whether a similar breach may have influenced the shock 2016 Brexit vote in Britain.

The summit host said leaders discussed the misuse of Facebook data by British firm Cambridge Analytica, which played a role in US President Donald Trump’s election campaign.

“It was clear to all the leaders that citizens’ privacy and data should be fully protected,” European Council President Donald Tusk told a press conference in Brussels.

“We take this issue very seriously. The EU and national legislation must be respected and enforced,” said Mr Tusk, a former Polish premier who echoed a written summit statement.

Those remarks neither reflected the political concerns Mr Tusk raised in the run-up to the summit nor those that others expressed on Thursday on the EU summit sidelines.

As the leaders met, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani pressed Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to take him up on his invitation to speak to the elected body.

Mr Tajani warned it would be a “big mistake” for him not to answer questions from an elected body that regulates a market of 500 million people, many of them Facebook users.

“We want to know if during the American elections and during the referendum on the Brexit, people used data for changing the position of the citizens,” the Italian politician told reporters.

Mr Tajani said he was still waiting for Mr Zuckerberg to reply to his invitation to speak to the parliament.

Speaking across the street from the summit venue, EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova had understood the leaders were also tackling the “political implication” of the data breach and its possible impact on democracy.

Ms Jourova, who recalled “manipulation and brainwashing” when her native Czech Republic was under communist rule, said the Facebook case is “much more serious” than a data breach. “Because here we witness the threat to democracy,” she told reporters after returning from talks in Washington about data protection, including the Facebook case.