Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the committee on April 11th at 2:15 PM ET. Last week, Zuckerberg turned down a similar request by European regulators, where they asked him to appear before a UK Parliamentary committee who is also underway on a similar investigation into Facebook’s use and protection of user data.
The data-sharing scandal centers around how Facebook users’ data ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica prompting questions about the company’s powers across the world; This led to a #deletefacebook viral campaign.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote in a statement ahead of the Facebook hearings, “I’m glad Mr. Zuckerberg has agreed to face the music. His company has shamelessly shredded the privacy rights of its users.”
He added, “This hearing is a good first step towards instituting some vitally necessary rules of the road for Big Tech.”
About the Cambridge Analytica Scandal
Last week, Sheryl Sandberg admitted that the Cambridge Analyicta data breach appeared on Facebook’s radar two and a half years ago, in December of 2015.
Laguna Niguel, CA, USA; Tuesday, Oct. 7th, 2014; Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook speaks at the 2014 Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. (Krista Kennell / Shutterstock.com)
“We could’ve done this two and a half years ago,” Sandberg admitted. “We thought the data had been deleted and we should have checked. They gave us assurances, and it wasn’t until other people told us it wasn’t true … We had legal assurances from them that they deleted it. What we didn’t do is the next step of an audit, and we’re trying to do that now,” Sheryl Sandberg said during an interview on NBC’s TODAY show with Savannah Guthrie.
Ultimately, Facebook can not shy away from the criticism over the way the company manages their data, even as the company looks to shy away from controversy.
On Tuesday, Facebook announced the company will start notifying the 87 million whose information was improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica. If you have not received a notification in your News Feed, there is an easy to check your account. Facebook’s help center will allow for users to know if they were affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal.