UK Parliament lists over 50 questions to ask Zuckerberg in Brussels

The Facebook CEO has repeatedly snubbed invitations to give evidence in London, but British politicians aren't giving up without a fight.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent

Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.

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Katie Collins

May 21, 2018 4:01 p.m. PT

2 min read

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel at European Parliament — Zuckerberg will meet with members of the European Parliament Tuesday in Brussels.
Getty Images

The UK Parliament on Tuesday published a list of over 50 points it wants the European Parliament to quiz Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on when he gives evidence later in the day.

Zuckerberg is set to talk to lawmakers in Brussels where he will be quizzed over Facebook's role in foreign elections in a meeting that will be streamed live on the European Parliament's website. The Facebook chief agreed to the meeting last week, at the same as rejecting an invitation -- one of several he has now snubbed -- to appear before Parliament in the UK.

Zuckerberg previously sent Facebook's CTO Mike Schroepfer to London in his place to give evidence to Parliament's Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee, which is currently investigating the problem of fake news. But British politicians found Schroefper's answers to their questions to be lacking in depth and accuracy. Facebook followed up with written answers to the committee's outstanding questions, but they were still deemed unsatisfactory.

Committee Chairman Damian Collins wrote again to Facebook on Monday to ask Zuckerberg to appear before Parliament, outlining where Facebook's answers had fallen short. He also shared the letter with MEPs (members of the European Parliament) and those attending the meeting on Tuesday so they can put these questions directly to Zuckerberg.

"The Facebook data breach was executed in the UK and the data went to a UK company, affecting over one million UK users," said Collins. "The UK Parliament therefore should be able to question Mark Zuckerberg about this and the lessons to be learned from it, and we remain open to him giving evidence.

"But if Mark Zuckerberg chooses not to address our questions by directly, we are asking colleagues at the European Parliament to help us get answers -- particularly on who knew what at the company and when -- about the data breach and the non-transparent use of political adverts which continue to undermine our democracy," he said.

Facebook did not respond to request for comment.

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