Mark Zuckerberg is cooperating with lawmakers who wish to pick his brain in connection with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Zuckerberg will testify in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11. According to Variety, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Oregon) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) released a statement claiming the hearing, "will be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues and help all Americans better understand what happens to their personal information online.” They also thanked Zuckerberg for his cooperation, stating, "We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s willingness to testify before the committee, and look forward to him answering our questions on April 11."
The leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee also wish to hear testimony from Zuckerberg. A spokesperson for Facebook states that the CEO of the billion dollar social media site is doing everything in his power to communicate and meet with the lawmakers that are most pressed to hear his account of the situation.
Zuckerberg has openly apologized for the scandal, in which millions of users data was used in a study that was in turn given to analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. It was against Facebook policy for the original researcher's findings to be shared with anyone outside of the initial project, but the information was passed on regardless. Cambridge Analytica was hired by the Trump Administration prior to his election, and the information was used to predict the personalities of voters based on their social media posts.
