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Zuckerberg under pressure to face EU lawmakers over data scandal

April 18, 2018 at 03:05 pm EDT

STRASBOURG (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg came under pressure from EU lawmakers on Wednesday to come to Europe and shed light on the data breach involving Cambridge Analytica that affected nearly three million Europeans.

The world's largest social network is under fire worldwide after information about nearly 87 million users wrongly ended up in the hands of the British political consultancy, a firm hired by Donald Trump for his 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign.

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani last week repeated his request to Zuckerberg to appear before the assembly, saying that sending a junior executive would not suffice.

In his letter to the Facebook CEO, Tajani said the company should bear in mind that lawmakers play a key role in crafting tough rules governing online tech giants.

"Let me also stress that one of the Parliament's future priorities will be to reinforce the regulatory framework to ensure a well-functioning digital market with high level protection for our citizens," he wrote.

EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, who recently spoke to Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, said Zuckerberg should heed the lawmakers' call.

"This case is too important to treat as business as usual," Jourova told an assembly of lawmakers.

"I advised Sheryl Sandberg that Zuckerberg should accept the invitation from the European Parliament. (EU digital chief Andrius) Ansip refers to the invitation as a measure of rebuilding trust," she said.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. Zuckerberg fielded 10 hours of questions over two days from nearly 100 U.S. lawmakers last week and emerged largely unscathed. He will meet Ansip in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Another European lawmaker Sophia in't Veld echoed the call from her colleagues, saying that the Facebook CEO should do them the same courtesy.

"I think Zuckerberg would be well advised to appear at the Parliament out of respect for Europeans," she said.

Lawmaker Viviane Reding, the architect of the EU's landmark privacy law which will come into effect on May 25, giving Europeans more control over their online data, said the right laws would bring back trust among users.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Adrian Croft)

By Foo Yun Chee

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Mark Zuckerberg

Youngest billionaire in the world with 4 billion dollars in 2010, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of the social networking site Facebook, was the 52nd richest men in the world in 2011 (according to Forbes). His personal fortune was estimated at $ 13.5 billion in 2011.

Graduated in 2003 from Phillips Exeter Academy, Mark Zuckerberg joined Harvard. Keen on informatics and gifted in programming, he created his first network aimed to rate the sex appeal of his friends by hacking photos on the servers of Harvard. The user has two portraits of girls and he has to vote for the sexiest girl. Success is dazzling: 22 000 connections in two hours.

In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg officially launched Facebook, a social network designed primarily for students of Harvard and other universities, the success was immediate. Little by little, Mark adds functionalities which allow to find people, communicate with them and to see friend in common.

In 2006, Facebook is opened to the public. The popularity of the social network growas each day and overtakes My Space.

Mark Zuckerberg used advertising based on behaviors of network users. Advertisers could easily target customers interested in their offers. But Mark Zuckerberg has to update constantly his securities policy. In 2010, 500 million people had a Facebook account.

In 2007, Microsoft spent $ 280 million to hold 1.7 % of the fastest growing social network. The Chinese billionaire spent $ 120 million to hold approximately 0.8% of Facebook.

In 2010, Facebook counted 500 million members and had a turnover of $ 500 million in 2009. It is the 5th most visited website in the world. In 2011, Mark Zuckerberg leaded the way of the most powerful figure according to Medias ahead Rupert Murdoch, Larry Page and Steve Jobs (The Guardian).

Mark Zuckerberg has been in trial twice, the first one against the Winklevoss twins who accused him of intellectual property offense, the second one against Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of The Facebook ( the first version of Facebook), who was his roommate at Harvard but also his best friend.

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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC Investment Trusts/Mutual FundsMiscellaneous Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC (CZI) is a private foundation headquartered in Redwood City, California. The firm was founded was co-founded by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg in 2015 to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges — from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of their local communities. CZI is composed of four funding entities: the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, LLC (the main operational funding vehicle); the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Foundation (a 501(c)(3) private foundation); the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Advocacy, (a 501(c)(4) organization). In addition to traditional grantmaking to support people and organizations working toward their missions in Science, Education, and within their communities, CZI makes venture investments in impact-focused companies, builds tools and products that they can scale and give away for free, and supports capacity building to achieve progress across their work.	Chief Executive Officer

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