EU parliament renews call for Facebook CEO to testify over data scandal

BRUSSELS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- European Parliament (EP) on Wednesday renewed its call to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to come before the Parliament to answer questions on the misuse of European citizens' personal data.

Members of the European parliament (MEPs) made the call at a debate on data protection and citizens' privacy with the Commission and the Council of the European Union on Wednesday in Strasbourg.

MEPs further expressed concerns about the effects of social media, fake news, and election manipulation on democratic processes.

"The scandal was seen as a wake-up call to the need to ensure data protection against political and commercial use of personal data," according to an EP statement.

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.

Facebook is accused of allowing Cambridge Analytica to harvest the personal details of more than 50 million users without their permission to target them during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Brexit referendum. In total, the Facebook information of up to 87 million users, out of which 2.7 million are in the EU, may have been improperly obtained. Enditem