Mark Zuckerberg Tuesday declined an invitation to testify before UK officials, but he's agreed to meet with the EU Parliament as soon as next week. "The Conference of Presidents has agreed that Mark Zuckerberg should come to clarify issues related to the use of personal data in a meeting with representatives of the European Parliament," Parliament President Antonio Tajani said in a statement.
"The founder and CEO of Facebook has accepted our invitation and will be in Brussels as soon as possible, hopefully already next week."
EU officials have issued some of the strictest regulation on Silicon Valley in recent months, most notably the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, that is requiring major tech firms like Facebook, Twitter and Google to significantly adjust privacy policies.
"Our citizens deserve a full and detailed explanation," Tajani said. "Web giants must be responsible for the content they publish."
Facebook is facing governmental probes from regulators around the world in the wake of reports that research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to the sensitive information of as many as 87 million Facebook users.
A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed Zuckerberg accepted the invitation to meet.
"[We] appreciate the opportunity for dialogue, to listen to their views and show the steps we are taking to better protect people's privacy," the spokesperson said.
