Europe takes on Mark Zuckerberg and his dodging questions
Mark Zuckerberg’s big European test did not go well. The Facebook CEO apologized for the company’s mistakes but angered European lawmakers by dodging their questions. Zuckerberg was questioned on Tuesday by political leaders and lawmakers at the European Parliament in Brussels for about 80 minutes. (CNN)
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After listening to about an hour of questions from members of the European Union’s Parliament, Zuckerberg answered at the end—rather than responding to each question after it was posed. But he ended up only spending about 25 minutes giving his replies, ignoring some questions completely. (CNET)
One of the regulators could be heard on video claiming Facebook requested the format, but in a post-meeting press conference, European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said the arrangement was his proposal. Tajani would still like to hold a more formal hearing with someone from Facebook down the line. (Recode)
Some of the sharpest queries came from Belgian member Guy Verhofstadt, who called out Zuckerberg for Facebook’s long history of apologizing for its mistakes and then failing to actually correct them. Pressed for greater detail toward the end, including on the company’s practice of tracking people who don’t even have Facebook profiles, Zuckerberg promised to “follow up” with the politicians at a later date. (HuffPost)
Lawmakers questioned Zuckerberg about Facebook’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the misuse of personal data. A new European data-protection law goes into effect Friday. (CBS News)
