A British parliamentary committee has asked Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, to give evidence to an investigation into fake news.
The request comes amid reports that a U.K.-based company allegedly used Facebook data to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. The company, Cambridge Analytica, has been accused of improperly using information from more than 50 million Facebook accounts. It denies wrongdoing.
The chairman of the U.K. parliamentary media committee, Damian Collins, said Tuesday that his group has repeatedly asked Facebook how it uses data and that Facebook officials "have been misleading to the committee."
Collins says it "is now time to hear from a senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process."
Conservative MP Damian Collins to Zuckerberg: 'I hope this representative will be you.' (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Addressing Zuckerberg directly, Collins adds: "I hope this representative will be you."
At the same time, Britain's information commissioner says she is using all her legal powers to investigate the handling of personal data by Cambridge Analytica and Facebook.
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham is pursuing a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's servers. The company allegedly used data mined from Facebook to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election.
She told BBC on Tuesday she is also investigating Facebook and has asked Facebook not to pursue its own audit of Cambridge Analytica's data use. She says Facebook has agreed.
I have today written to @facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling on him to give oral evidence to @CommonsCMS following recent reports in @guardian and @nytimes pic.twitter.com/y5xnGHzaNI
— @DamianCollins
Denham said the prime allegation against Cambridge Analytica is that it acquired personal data in an unauthorized way.
Chris Wylie, a Canadian who once worked for Cambridge Analytica, was quoted as saying the company used the data to build psychological profiles so voters could be targeted with ads and stories.
Denham launched her investigation after weekend reports that Cambridge Analytica improperly used information from more than 50 million Facebook accounts. Facebook has suspended the company from the social network.
Britain's Channel 4 used an undercover investigation to record Cambridge Analytica's chief executive, Alexander Nix, saying that the company could use unorthodox methods to wage successful political campaigns for clients.
Cambridge Analytica's chief executive officer Alexander Nix was recorded by Britain's Channel 4 saying the company could use entrapment, bribes or so-called 'honeytraps' to wage successful political campaigns for clients. He later said the company doesn't condone such behaviour. (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images)
He said the company could "send some girls" around to a rival candidate's house, suggesting that girls from Ukraine are beautiful and effective in this role.
He also said the company could "offer a large amount of money" to a rival candidate and have the whole exchange recorded so it could be posted on the internet to show that the candidate was corrupt.
Nix says in a statement on the company's website that he deeply regrets his role in the meeting and has apologized to staff.
"I am aware how this looks, but it is simply not the case," he said. "I must emphatically state that Cambridge Analytica does not condone or engage in entrapment, bribes or so-called 'honeytraps,' and nor does it use untrue material for any purposed."
The data harvesting used by Cambridge Analytica has also triggered calls for further investigation from the European Union, as well as federal and state officials in the United States.
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