Mark Zuckerberg branded 'cowardly' over 'unacceptable' refusal to appear before Commons committee over alleged data misuse

Shadow culture secretary Tom Watson has branded Mark Zuckerberg “cowardly” over his refusal to give evidence to a House of Commons committee over allegations of misuse of Facebook users’ data.

The Facebook founder has turned down an invitation to appear before the influential Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in the wake of revelations by whistleblower Christopher Wylie into how UK-based data firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) harvested details of 50 million users on the social networking site.

The details were allegedly used to micro-target campaign messages in support of Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential election.

Tom Watson, who is deputy Labour leader as well as shadow culture secretary, hit out at the Facebook billionaire’s refusal to face MPs, tweeting: After listening to Christopher Wylie’s devastating testimony to the DCMS Select Committee it’s probably worth saying that this isn’t just cowardly, it’s completely unacceptable.”

Despite Mr Zuckerberg’s rejection of the invitation, the committee’s chairman Damian Collins repeated his call for Mr Zuckerberg to face a public grilling, saying it would be “appropriate” for him to answer MPs’ questions.

He said: “We believe, given the serious nature of the allegations that have been made around the access and use of Facebook user data, that it is appropriate that Mark Zuckerberg should give evidence to the committee.”

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In a letter to Mr Collins, Facebook’s head of public policy Rebecca Stimson said despite the request for Mr Zuckerberg to attend the company would be putting forward chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer or chief product officer Chris Cox, who are both “well-placed to answer the committee’s questions on these complex subjects”.

Mr Collins said the committee would be “happy” to hear from Mr Cox but made clear he was not withdrawing the call for Mr Zuckerberg to give evidence.

Giving evidence to the committee, whistleblower Christopher Wylie said: “They [Cambridge Analytica] don’t care whether or not what they do is legal, as long as it gets the job done.”

Asked what motivated the people he worked for, he said: “These are people who don’t need to make a lot of money, but the thing that I learned is that for certain wealthy people, they need something to keep them occupied and they need projects.

“Going into the developing world and running a country is something that appeals to them.”