Facebook’s Zuckerberg, Sandberg, fail to show to Ottawa hearing

By Sonia Aslam and The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The international grand committee on big data, privacy and democracy has voted to serve a summons on Facebook executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg.

It’s supposed to compel the pair to appear before the group the next time either one of them sets foot on Canadian soil.

Chairman, Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, told the Ottawa meeting of politicians from Canada, the UK, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Ireland, Latvia and Singapore that it was “abhorrent” the two did not show.

“It’s important that he’s not here today and Ms Sandberg is not here today,” adds Zimmer. “It was very clearly communicated to them that they were to appear today before us so as soon as they step foot either Mr Zuckerberg or Ms Sandberg enter our country they will be served and expected to appear before our committee.”

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Zimmer says the next step would be to hold Zuckerberg and Sandberg in contempt.

The purpose of the three-day meeting is to determine how to protect citizens’ privacy and democratic fairness in the age of social media.

Committee members will also grill representatives from a host of internet giants — Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Amazon and Mozilla — on what they’re doing, or not doing, to prevent abuse.

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