UPDATED 21:53 EST / NOVEMBER 07 2018

APPS

Mark Zuckerberg snubs international committee request to talk about fake news

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rebuffed an invitation to meet with an “international grand committee” on Nov. 27 to discuss the matter of fake news and how much of it is disseminated on Facebook.

The invitation came from Damian Collins, the head of the U.K. parliament’s media committee, along with government representatives from the Canada, Australia, Argentina and Ireland. This isn’t the first time that Zuckerberg has turned down an appointment with Collins, having refused a date in the U.K. during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Collins, along with others belonging to a 12-people U.K. parliamentary committee, this year have put together a report to better understand “the phenomenon of ‘fake news,’ distributed largely through social media” as well as ascertain how the promulgation of fake news might negatively affect democracy.

The writers of the report embarked on a mission to understand what fake news is, although it called it “misinformation” and “disinformation.” The report also attempted to unravel the big question of what social media platforms are: publishers with a publisher’s responsibility, or nexuses of content where virtually anything goes?

And so, who better to grill than Zuckerberg. But that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, with Collins and others members of the international committee stating in a signed letter Thursday that Zuckerberg declined to talk to them.

According to that letter, Facebook responded at least, but only saying the company was currently working on the issue of fake news. The committee didn’t receive any details as to how Facebook might win the battle. “We were very disappointed with this dismissive response,” said the committee.

“As you will see from the list of signatories to this letter, the ‘grand committee’ on disinformation and fake news is growing,” the letter went on. “Five parliaments are now calling on you to do the right thing by the 170 million users in the countries they represent.”

It seems the committee is still holding out, giving Zuckerberg until Monday to change his mind.

Photo: YouTube/screenshot

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