Transparency battle won: S&Ds successful in push for webstreaming of meeting with Mark Zuckerberg
Date
21 May 2018
Sections
Health & Consumers
InfoSociety
Following the announcement that the meeting of Facebook-CEO Mark Zuckerberg with representatives of the European Parliament will be webstreamed, S&D Group leader Udo Bullmann said:
“Thanks to our pressure and contrary to what conservatives and right-wing forces voted for, the meeting with Facebook-CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be webstreamed, giving people the possibility to see what he has to say about the use, or misuse, of their data. Anything else would have been doomed to failure from the outset. Why did it even need our pressure to achieve that? Naturally, the CEO of the biggest social network in the world who claims to connect people has to be prepared to connect with them. A meeting behind closed doors would have been nothing but a farce.”
“We are now looking forward to an open and fully transparent exchange before the eyes of the European public. We expect Zuckerberg to clarify the processes that allowed Cambridge Analytica to abuse the data of millions of Europeans and to manipulate elections. People deserve answers, we hope Zuckerberg delivers on that.”
“Apart from that, we call for a second exchange with Zuckerberg and his high-level management with all relevant experts of the European Parliament for a more in-depth analysis, also regarding possible legal consequences of the scandal. The S&Ds has been pushing for that from the beginning. Unfortunately, the center-right majority voted for a format in a small and exclusive circle, without the experts from the committees of the European Parliament involved. We will continue fighting for absolute transparency.”
“The S&D Group defends the rights of internet users in Europe on all fronts. We fight for data protection and, with that, also for the sovereignty of democracy. One important step is the new General Data Protection Regulation that was adopted, thanks to pressure from our Group, and which will enter into force on 25 May. Moreover, we are pushing for the new ePrivacy Regulation to be adopted. The new rules will give people the right and the tools to control their own privacy, giving them back some of the power that companies like Facebook have taken. Now it’s up to European governments to work with us to ensure that happens. They have to decide what is more important: People’s rights and data protection or big companies’ interests? We stand firmly on the side of the people.”
Jobs
LRE Foundation
Europex
Europex
cecoforma
EBF - European Banking Federation
GetYourGuide
HYDROGEN EUROPE
Ohana Public Affairs
Eurochild
VDMA European Office