Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg snubbed a meeting of parliamentarians on Tuesday who responded with a fusillade of angry questions for his replacement about the company’s failures to tackle hate speech, data misuse and election tampering.
Lawmakers from nine countries left the empty chair and nameplate for the absent chief executive of Facebook for the session in the UK parliament and released a series of pointed Twitter messages aimed at Mr Zuckerberg.
“Nine countries, 24 official representatives, 447 people represented,” said one message from the select committee probing Facebook’s role in a fake news and global disinformation investigation. “One question: where is Mark Zuckerberg?”
MPs from Argentina, Canada, France, Singapore, Ireland, Belgium, Brazil, Latvia and the UK linked up to form an “international grand committee” to interview his replacement, Richard Allan.
The MPs repeatedly criticised Mr Zuckerberg’s no-show in a hostile session that included questions over when it responded to emerging threats of election interference and its policies on tackling hate speech.
“The sense of corporate social responsibility, particularly in light of the immense power and profit of Facebook, has been as empty as the chair beside you,” Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, a Canadian MP, told Mr Allan.
The committee of global lawmakers came together after the refusal of Mr Zuckerberg to appear before MPs in the UK and Canada.
Mr Allan, a former MP who now sits in the UK’s upper chamber as well as being Facebook's vice-president for policy solutions, apologised for Mr Zuckerberg’s failure to appear. He accepted the impression was “not great” that Mr Zuckerberg had declined to appear before parliament in the United Kingdom.
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Read more:
International coalition to quiz Facebook over data misuse
UK Parliament seizes internal Facebook documents
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The hearing followed revelations at the weekend that the committee employed little-used legal powers to seize documents thought to contain emails from senior company officials including Mr Zuckerberg in an attempt to shed light on how it treated potential data breaches.
The chairman of the committee, Damian Collins, said the documents were seized because of the failure of Facebook to answer questions about the company’s role in Russian tampering in the 2016 US elections and the Brexit referendum in the UK.
The company has called for the return of the documents, which was secured from an app developer involved in a legal dispute with Facebook. Mr Collins said the committee would not publish the documents but cited the documents as saying that an engineer told Facebook in October 2014 that Russian addresses were seeking “three billion data points” a day.
Facebook has previously said that it was unaware of this sort of Russian activity on the social network until after the 2016 US presidential election. Mr Allan said he would investigate what actions Facebook took.
Facebook was also questioned on its record on taking down hate speech and racist material. The committee heard that the company failed to take down a post in Sri Lanka calling for the murder of Muslims.
Singapore politician Edwin Tong said the official response from Facebook was that no policy had been broken. “We make mistakes, our job is to reduce the number of mistakes,” said Mr Allan.
The meeting is just the latest public relations problem for the company that has seen nearly $240 billion erased from its value since its peak in July.
Facebook has some two billion users around the world but faces regulation in a number of countries following a series of scandals over the use of personal information.
The company has also been criticised after the company used a public relations firm to promote negative stories about its rivals and linked the financier George Soros to an anti-Facebook group.
The group said the move was anti-Semitic and had followed other attacks by right-wing regimes on charities funded by Mr Soros.
Under-21 European Championship Final
Germany 1 Spain 0
Weiser (40')
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
Company%20profile
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Story%20behind%20the%20UAE%20flag
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Name: Brendalle Belaza
From: Crossing Rubber, Philippines
Arrived in the UAE: 2007
Favourite place in Abu Dhabi: NYUAD campus
Favourite photography style: Street photography
Favourite book: Harry Potter
THE BIO
Family: I have three siblings, one older brother (age 25) and two younger sisters, 20 and 13
Favourite book: Asking for my favourite book has to be one of the hardest questions. However a current favourite would be Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier
Favourite place to travel to: Any walkable city. I also love nature and wildlife
What do you love eating or cooking: I’m constantly in the kitchen. Ever since I changed the way I eat I enjoy choosing and creating what goes into my body. However, nothing can top home cooked food from my parents.
Favorite place to go in the UAE: A quiet beach.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
'Cheb%20Khaled'
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EArtist%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKhaled%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ELabel%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBelieve%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: CVT
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 220Nm
Price: Dh98,900
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Four%20scenarios%20for%20Ukraine%20war
%3Cp%3E1.%20Protracted%20but%20less%20intense%20war%20(60%25%20likelihood)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E2.%20Negotiated%20end%20to%20the%20conflict%20(30%25)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E3.%20Russia%20seizes%20more%20territory%20(20%25)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E4.%20Ukraine%20pushes%20Russia%20back%20(10%25)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cem%3EForecast%20by%20Economist%20Intelligence%20Unit%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
23-man shortlist for next six Hall of Fame inductees
Tony Adams, David Beckham, Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell, Eric Cantona, Andrew Cole, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Les Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Matt Le Tissier, Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, John Terry, Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic, Patrick Viera, Ian Wright.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Review: Tomb Raider
Dir: Roar Uthaug
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Walter Goggins
two stars
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Huddersfield Town permanent signings:
- Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
- Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
- Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
- Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
- Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
- Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
- Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
- Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.