A conservative member of the British Parliament warned Facebook on Tuesday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be subpoenaed if he refuses a formal summons to testify.
“It is worth noting that, while Mr. Zuckerberg does not normally come under the jurisdiction of the UK Parliament, he will the next time he enters the country,” Damian Collins wrote in his letter to Rebecca Stimson, head of public policy for the company in the U.K. “We hope that he will respond positively to our request, but if not the Committee will resolve to issue a formal summons for him to appear when he is next in the UK.”
BREAKING: This is pretty extraordinary. Parliament issues ultimatum to Facebook. Either Mark Zuckerberg comes voluntarily. Or, he’ll face a summons next time he enters British territory. Facebook really couldn’t have handled this much worse… pic.twitter.com/VFyJrHXWel
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) May 1, 2018
Although Collins thanked Stimson for arranging for Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer, to appear before Parliament, he maintained that Schroepfer was unable to answer questions on 40 separate points.
The British Parliament has now invited Zuckerberg to testify a few times, without any affirmative response.
“[T]here are over 40 million Facebook users in the UK and they deserve to hear accurate answers from the company [Zuckerberg] created and whether it is able to keep their users’ data safe,” Collins said.
