Following the decision of the conservative and far-right forces in the parliament to question Facebook-CEO Mark Zuckerberg behind closed doors, S&D Group leader Udo Bullmann has called for the meeting to be webstreamed:
"The Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament defend the rights of Internet users in Europe – and it starts right here. People deserve to know how Facebook is using their data and how they were affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The conservative and right-wing forces have to explain to the millions of European Facebook users: why should people not see how we quiz Mark Zuckerberg? Why should they not know what he has to say about the use or misuse of their data? It seems as if the conservative and far-right groups want to go easy on Zuckerberg. This is unacceptable."
"We urge president Tajani to ensure transparency by webstreaming the meeting. If anybody, Mark Zuckerberg should be open to this. After all, his business model is all about sending out messages into the world."
"The way such meetings are organised is crucial to how our institution is perceived by Europeans. That’s why we have to make sure it takes place in an open and transparent way!"
Bullmann stresses that the S&D Group will continue fighting for data protection and the sovereignty of democracy:
"A 45 minute meeting with Mark Zuckerberg is only a small step in a series of actions we have to take to ensure that our personal data is not abused and that our democracies are not endangered. We have to find solutions and to ensure that this type of extensive, secretive and indiscriminate data gathering and processing for algorithmic targeting cannot happen anymore in the future. We will make this a main focus of our work."
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