Facebook's Ceo, Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to have two congressional hearings this week over the data leak involving Cambridge Analytica. Zuckerberg will meet with some US lawmakers Monday in preparation of his testimony over the mishandling of data from millions of Facebook users.
According to Reuters, congressional aides confirmed on Sunday the meeting between Facebook's founder and lawmakers a day before the official hearing.
These series of meetings will take place on Capitol Hill. In addition, lawmakers from the committees will meet with Zuckerberg. He will have to testify before them and the aides who confirmed these meetings have requested not be identified.
Zuckerberg to testify before the US Senate and Commerce committees
Zuckerberg has agreed to appear and testify in light of the scandal behind the data breach. He will have to answer questions related to how this data firm, who was not authorized to have the data, utilized the information from 50 million Facebook users.
The Cambridge Analytica data breach stemmed from Facebook suspending the data firm from its platform.
Afterward, media reports followed and confirmed the data analysis firm had harvested information from 50 million users.
As reported by CNN, the whistleblower who worked at Cambridge Analytica alluded to the harvesting of user data. Initially, earlier reports confirmed 50 million Facebook accounts had been affected. Facebook confirmed last week the number of accounts actually utilized had been recalculated to 87 million.
Within the news release above, Facebook upon being contacted by Reuters declined to comment on these recent developments. Furthermore, the world's largest social network has come under fire in light of the unauthorized use of data by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook to begin contacting users affected by the data leak
The company spokesman for Facebook confirmed that come Monday users will be contacting users identified in this data breach.
Cambridge Analytica is a London-based firm. It has been linked to President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and a known client of his. It has refuted Facebook's claims on the supposed number of users affected.
It is anticipated that Zuckerberg will come clean about the data leak and accept responsibility for this issue.
It will be interesting to see what sort of questions the company's owner is asked. Finally, based on the answers he provides it may offer a clue as to how Facebook evolves in the upcoming months.