Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has decided he will finally testify in front of the US Congress to explain the data privacy scandal currently gripping his company.
It had to happen, it was inevitable. One could say the writing was on the wall all along, right from when Facebook's nightmare began just over a week ago.
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The 33-year-old CEO of the embattled social media giant, which has over 2 billion users around the world, is quickly coming to terms with the reality of testifying in front of the US Congress within a matter of weeks, according to several CNN sources inside Facebook.?
Facebook is currently believed to be planning the strategy for Mark Zuckerberg's testimony in front of the US House Energy & Commerce Committee on April 12, as per a Bloomberg report, where he's expected to field some tough questions on data privacy practices in Facebook and more broadly the high-profile culture inside Silicon Valley.?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued an apology last week, but it was hardly enough.?The US House committee wants to quiz Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook¡¯s dealings with Cambridge Analytica, which allegedly influenced political views on the social network during the 2016 US Presidential election by illegally mining data of 50 million Facebook users.
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Apart from this, Mark Zuckerberg has also been called to testify in front of a separate US Senate Judiciary Committee.?
The news about Mark Zuckerberg agreeing to testify in front of the US Government comes close behind reports earlier in the day when the Facebook CEO?turned down a similar request from British lawmakers to answer questions about Facebook's privacy practices, choosing to send two deputies to represent the social network there instead.
DID YOU KNOW:?Facebook's Android App Collected Call Logs, SMS Related Info From Installed Phones For Years
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After sustaining losses of over $100 billion last week, and facing increasing backlash from its users (not to mention class action lawsuits for leaking private data), Facebook's in a fight to restore public confidence about the security and integrity of their social network. And Mark Zuckerberg has his work cut out?to put user privacy and data protection ahead of its monetization practices.
The mounting pressure from angry lawmakers, the world media and frustrated public has reached a boiling point to justify anything less from Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook going forward. These next few weeks may very well define Facebook's destiny.
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