Facebook’s Zuckerberg to testify to House panel on user data

WASHINGTON — The leaders of a House oversight committee say Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the panel on April 11.

In an announcement Wednesday, Reps. Greg Walden and Frank Pallone say the hearing will focus on Facebook’s “use and protection of user data.” Facebook is facing scrutiny over its data collection following allegations that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtained data on tens of millions of Facebook users to try to influence elections.

Walden, R-Ore. is the House Energy and Commerce committee’s chairman. Pallone of New Jersey is the panel’s top Democrat. In a statement, they say the hearing will be “an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues and help all Americans better understand what happens to their personal information online.”

Last month, Zuckerberg turned down a request by British lawmakers to appear before them to respond to concerns about data privacy, offering to send chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer or chief product officer Chris Cox to London instead.

The EU has given the social media giant until April 10 to answer its own queries over the scandal, which has heavily hit Facebook’s share price and raised major questions over how social media companies use private data.

Cambridge Analytica been under fire since The New York Times and The Guardian newspaper reported that it used data inappropriately obtained from roughly 50 million Facebook users to try to influence elections, including the 2016 US presidential election. Among that information were users’ likes and friend connections on the network.