Chief executive officer and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and European Commission Vice President for the digital single market Andrus Ansip on Wednesday met and discussed issues bothering on privacy protection.
The European Commission Vice President made this known on Wednesday tweeting about the meeting which also entails how to counter disinformation on the Internet, especially on social media.
“Discussed with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg the steps that Facebook has taken and plans to take to protect users privacy and tackle disinformation. There is a wider need to rebuild trust. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) shows the way forward,” Ansip tweet read.
Discussed with Mark Zuckerberg and @sherylsandberg the steps that Facebook has taken and plans to take to protect users #privacy and tackle #disinformation. There is a wider need to rebuild rebuild #trust. #GDPR shows the way forward. pic.twitter.com/loCNIxPoIT
— Andrus Ansip (@Ansip_EU) April 18, 2018
Facebook has been under fire for allowing UK-based data analytic firm, Cambridge Analytica, to harvest personal details of more than 87 million users without their permission to target them during the 2015 Nigeria presidential election, the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit referendum.
Zuckerberg accepted responsibility for the whole brouhaha when he appeared before US Congress last week, especially for not preventing the social media platform from being used for harm, including fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech.
However, the Facebook CEO pledged to limit the amount of users information apps on the platform can get access to, and said such apps must have to get users’ approval.
European Parliament on Wednesday renewed its call to Zuckerberg to come before the Parliament to answer questions on the misuse of European citizens’ personal data.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) emphasized that the General Data Protection Regulation that will apply as of May 26 will give citizens control over their personal data and set global standards.
However, some MEPs pointed out that the new data protection rules will not prevent future scandals and called on the Council to proceed with the e-privacy regulation.
