Mark Zuckerberg will not be attending a British parliamentary inquiry into the group’s data breach but will instead send a deputy to attend.
Facebook’s (NASDAQ: FB) founder and chief executive has refused to be questioned by MPs over the data scandal, despite being written to directly by Damian Collins, leader of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee.
Facebook’s head of public policy, Rebecca Stimson has confirmed the inquiry will instead be attended by the group’s chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, or the chief product officer, Chris Cox.
Schroepfer and Cox both “report directly to Mr Zuckerberg and are among the longest-serving senior representatives in Facebook’s 15-year history. Both of them have extensive expertise in these issues and are well placed to answer the committee’s questions on these complex subjects.”
Despite Facebook’s offer, Collins has insisted that Zuckerberg should be present – whether it is in person or via a video link.
“We believe, given the serious nature of the allegations that have been made around the access and use of Facebook user data, that it is appropriate that Mark Zuckerberg should give evidence to the committee,” he said.
“We will seek to clarify from Facebook whether he is available to give evidence or not, because that wasn’t clear from our correspondence. If he is available to give evidence then we would be happy to do that either in person or by video link, if that would be more convenient for him.”
“Given your commitment at the start of the New Year to ‘fixing’ Facebook, I hope that this representative will be you,” he finished.
Since the revelations of the data breach, the FTC has announced the social media platform is under investigation. Zuckerberg took to US and UK newspapers to apologise, yet the firm’s value continues to suffer.
Facebook’s value has plummeted $58 billion in the past week and shares in the group fell from $176.80 on Monday to $159.30 on Friday.