The U.S. Senate Judiciary committee has formally invited Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify on April 10th about his company's data scandal.
He will be joined by the CEOs of Twitter and Google... as concerns grow about the abuse of user data and privacy.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
Political pressure on Facebook, and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg is intensifying as a number of lawmakers have invited the billionaire to testify before the Senate in early April as the investigation into the misuse of Facebook users' data rumbles on.
According to the Senate Judiciary committee,... it will hold a hearing on April 10th, about data privacy in social media,... and has invited both the chief executives of Google and Twitter along with Zuckerberg.
Facebook is at the center of a widening investigation as the Federal Trade Commission has confirmed it's investigating Facebook's privacy practices,... after reports the company allowed the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest 50 million users' data.
The UK-based consultancy firm is known to have been employed by Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
While Facebook executives have been trying to reassure users that their personal information remains well protected,... elected officials have demanded Zuckerberg himself appear before Congress.
The push gained momentum with the support of Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Grassley stated that the upcoming hearing would examine "the protection and monitoring of consumer data."
Despite Zuckerberg's full-page ads in several U.S. and U.K. newspapers over the weekend, apologizing for Facebook's involvement in the scandal,... members of the Senate Judiciary committee from both parties felt his public apology and explanation was inadequate.
Zuckerberg had earlier said he would be happy to testify before Congress, "if he is the right person" in Facebook with the most knowledge on the issue.
Meanwhile, the hashtag #DeleteFacebook began trending worldwide,... as many Facebook users are choosing to deactivate their accounts amid the scandal,... with the company's stock price continuing to plunge.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
