While the world eagerly looks forward to resolving the data leak issue surrounding the social media giant Facebook, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg skipped answering specific questions of the European lawmakers.
He repeated his apologies, assurances, and Facebook’s plans regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The plans he talked about are the ones he said in detail in the 10-hour hearing in Washington last month. The European Union members in the recently concluded meeting could not forward discussions regarding their questions yesterday.
On the whole, there was little news Zuckerberg disclosed in the Facebook EU parliament meeting, and the company’s share price wasn’t enough to get a reaction from the room. Philippe Lamberts of the Greens, a party leader, and a lead legislator, said: “I asked you six ‘yes or no’ questions, I got not a single answer.”
The General Data Protection Regulation is about to be enforced on coming Friday, May 25, and Zuckerberg expressed his company’s compliance with the EU rules. He added that the company would employ 10,000 people in Europe by the end of 2018.
He most notably avoided questions like how non-Facebook users can stop the company from collecting their data. He turned around the subject by talking about his company’s stand on third-party apps.
In fact, after the scandal, Facebook suspended 200 such apps from its platform as a result of its investigations. Zuckerberg said that he expected the number to be bigger.
On the other hand, Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL Elections, have declared bankruptcy and are presently closed.
Facebook’s compliance with the new data rules will be under strict radars, and so will its efforts to contain and counter the spread of fake news right before the European Parliament elections in 2019.
Zuckerberg is scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. He has declined to appear in front of British lawmakers separately.
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