UK Officials Will Summon Mark Zuckerberg To Testify if He Won't Do So Voluntarily (cnbc.com)

UK officials said Tuesday they will summon Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Parliament the next time he's in British territory if he does not volunteer to do so. From a report: It would be the first governmental summons for Zuckerberg in the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica data leak and widespread concerns around user privacy. "It's worth noting that, while Mr. Zuckerberg does not normally come under the jurisdiction of the UK Parliament, he will do so the next time he enters the country," Damian Collins, a member of the UK Parliament, wrote in a letter published Tuesday. "There are over 40 million Facebook users in the UK and they deserve to hear accurate answers from the company he created and whether it is able to keep their users' data safe," Collins wrote.

Comments

When does it end?

[OrangeTide]

Does Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden each get a turn summoning a CEO for questions?

It's a big unrealistic to expect someone to visit every country in a timely manner. If they wish to speak with company representatives available in their respective region that's certainly reasonable and I'm sure can be arranged promptly.

Re:When does it end?

[Tailhook]

It's a big [sic] unrealistic

Zuckerberg et al. don't hesitate to play tax games among all these foreign countries. Zuckerberg et al. demand a borderless world from which to cherry pick employees. Zuckerberg et al. don't hesitate to cash the checks they earn from the UK and elsewhere. Zuckerberg et al. are unfailingly disappointed whenever the US fails to conform to the demands of international authorities (climate agreements, immigration policy, gun laws, etc.)

Yet let any of these countries demand Zuckerberg appear before investigators and all the sudden everything is "unrealistic" or "unreasonable."

You know what? Fuck Zuckerberg. He can spend the next tens years schlepping from one 18 star hotel to the next all over Europe and Asia dealing with these investigations as far as I'm concerned. If Zuckerberg doesn't like it he can stop accepting revenue from ad views outside the US or whatever he has to do to eliminate his obligations in foreign countries. If that means the Facebook business model isn't feasible then so be it; nothing of value will have been lost.

Re:Why Zuckerberg?

[squiggleslash]

What exactly do you think the local operation does? Maintain a parallel Facebook with its own independent privacy policies and implementation of those policies?

All of the questions MPs want answered pertain to decisions being made by Zuckerberg and his US-based subordinates. They don't give a fuck how much advertising "Facebook UK" was able to sell.

Re:Summon?

[serviscope_minor]

Considering how well he came off from the US hearings I think he might come. Our MPs are pretty tame really.

On the other hand, he hasn't already donated to the majority of them so they might be somewhat less tame.