Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Parliament has issued an ultimatum to Facebook: make Mark Zuckerberg available to testify voluntarily in front of its Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee or face a summons next time he enters British territory, according to a letter Tuesday from committee chairman Damian Collins.
Why it matters: Facebook is facing heat from regulators in Europe who want Zuckerberg to answer questions about data privacy just as he did in the U.S. Facebook isn't commenting for the record, but a company official noted that its chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, already testified for five hours last week and said Facebook plans to answer the other questions the committee still has.
Yes, but: Collins' letter said he "failed to answer on nearly 40 separate points."
The back story: Europe has generally been more strict than the U.S. on data and privacy standards. In May, a sweeping privacy law called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will go into effect for all businesses with that collect data from European citizens. If Facebook doesn't meet those standards, it could get hit with punitive fines.