Zuckerberg’s refusal to attend UK hearing forced seizure of documents, reports say

The refusal of Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook to honour an invitation by the UK parliament to attend a hearing into the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica forced the seizure of vital documents relating to the case, reports reveal.

It was in May this year that the UK government requested Zuckerberg’s presence to answer questions relating to the scandal, in which the data of up to 87 million users was improperly shared with a voter profiling company.

However, while the Facebook CEO did attend a US Congress hearing, meeting UK parliamentary members seemed to be a low priority, and Zuckerberg ignored the invitation.

Read also: Japanese scientists eye flammable ice as new form of energy

That forced the UK government to exercise its little-used powers in order to seize confidential documents relating to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The cache of internal documents, which reportedly contains information relating to privacy and data controls as well as private emails between Facebook executes and Zuckerberg, is now allegedly in the UK government’s possession.

It was originally estimated that over one million UK users were impacted in the Cambridge Analytical scandal, in which the data of up to 87 million users was improperly shared with a voter profiling company.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now