Zuckerberg rebuffs summons from British parliament over rise in fake news
London: The Latest on the Facebook privacy scandal (all times local):
2 pm
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is snubbing a summons from a British Parliamentary committee investigating the rise of fake news, offering to send senior executives in his place.
Damian Collins, chairman of Parliament’s media committee, urged Zuckerberg to “think again” on Tuesday about choosing not to appear and repeated an offer to have him testify via video link.
Facebook has offered to send chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer or chief product officer Chris Cox.
Zuckerberg is also under pressure to appear before US Congress following allegations that consultants Cambridge Analytica harvested details of 50 million Facebook users and used the material in US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election.
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1:50 pm
The computer expert who sparked a global debate over electronic privacy has told lawmakers that the official campaign backing Britain’s exit from the European Union had access to data that was inappropriately collected from millions of Facebook users.
Christopher Wylie previously alleged that Cambridge Analytica used data harvested from more than 50 million Facebook users to help US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Also Read: Canadian company made software to find Republican voters: Christopher Wylie
Wylie told the House of Commons’ media committee on Tuesday that he “absolutely” believed Canadian campaign consultant AggregateIQ had drawn on Cambridge Analytica’s databases for its work on the EU referendum.
He told the committee; “You can’t have targeting software that doesn’t access the database. Cambridge Analytica would have a database and AIQ would access that database, otherwise the software wouldn’t work.”
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9:55 am
The whistleblower at the heart of the Facebook privacy scandal is set to testify before British lawmakers investigating the increasing rise of fake news.
Christopher Wylie has alleged that Cambridge Analytica harvested details of 50 million Facebook users and used the material in US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. It is alleged the material made it possible to micro-target users with campaign material.
At a news conference on Monday on a linked issue, Wylie declined to answer questions about whether the data was also used in Britain by the campaign to leave the European Union. He said he would discuss the matter when he spoke to lawmakers from Parliament’s media committee on Tuesday.
