The UK government has reiterated a request for Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to attend a hearing on fake news and data privacy, on pain of receiving a formal summons if he should refuse.
Zuckerberg is currently at the F8 developer conference in San Jose, California. However, the Facebook chief is due to visit Europe later this month to give evidence on the rising spread of fake news[1] -- and UK officials want London included in the trip itinerary.
In a letter sent on Tuesday[2] (.PDF) by the UK Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee's MP Damian Collins to Rebecca Stimson, the head of Facebook's public policy at the UK press office, Collins once again re-issued the invitation, which has previously appeared to have been ignored.
Zuckerberg has been asked to appear for a session on 24 May.
While at this moment in time it is only an invitation, it is not one that the Facebook chief should ignore, especially considering his user base in the country.
"It is worth noting that, while Mr. Zuckerberg does not normally come under the jurisdiction of the UK parliament, he will do so the next time he enters the country," Collins says. "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."
In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal[3], Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technical Officer at Facebook, appeared in front of the committee[4] this week to answer questions from UK regulators on advertising, metadata collection, and social network interference in the world of politics.
However, Collins believes that the