Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has formally accepted the European Parliament’s invitation to testify over its data privacy practices.
Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, said that the hearing could take place as early as next week.
{mosads}“Our citizens deserve a full and detailed explanation,” Tajani said in a statement on Wednesday. “I welcome Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to appear in person before the representatives of 500 million Europeans. It is a step in the right direction towards restoring confidence.”
European leaders have been eager to hear from Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal after The Guardian and The Observer revealed that the British research firm improperly harvested data from 87 million Facebook users.
British lawmakers, in particular, have been concerned with the firm’s ties to ad campaigns related to the referendum on whether the United Kingdom would leave the European Union.
Zuckerberg’s decision comes after weeks of public pressure from European politicians to testify.
The Facebook CEO appeared before back-to-back congressional panels in Washington, D.C., last month to address his company’s dealings with Cambridge Analytica and its data collection practices.