Facebook to answer questions from German lawmakers over data use

A senior Facebook employee will answer questions form German lawmakers concerning its data collection and privacy practices, following a major scandal involving Cambridge Analytica that ensnared the social media company. 

Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president for global public policy, is set to privately meet with the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, on Friday, according to Reuters.

{mosads}“Facebook needs to show more openness and transparency when dealing with user data,” Nadine Schoen, deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc in the lower house, told the news outlet.

“It is not enough to exchange the gray T-shirt and jeans for suit and tie,” she said, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before lawmakers on Capitol Hill earlier in April.

During the hearing, Zuckerberg fielded questions from lawmakers about how Cambridge Analytica, a British research firm, was able to improperly harvest the data of 87 million Facebook users. He also addressed topics including “fake news” and issues regarding Russian manipulation of his platform.

German lawmakers will likely grill him on the Cambridge Analytica controversy as well as press him on steps the company is taking to curb international election influence.

“For example, the company is already rowing back in the supposedly worldwide announced implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation,” Schoen told Reuters, referring to new European privacy rules that will go into effect on May 25.

“We no longer need excuses, but facts,” she said.

German lawmakers’ ire is only one example of Facebook’s growing trouble in Europe. The company is facing scrutiny from British lawmakers over the Cambridge Analytica scandal as it relates to the Brexit vote. Other European countries have expressed concern over Facebook’s privacy practices as well.

Facebook is also facing looming tax hikes from the EU as it prepares to adjust its tax code to extract more money from technology firms.