Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Agrees to Testify in Data Privacy Scandal

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify at a congressional data privacy hearing after mounting pressure from lawmakers and the public.

Facebook has been under fire ever since it was revealed that a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign accessed information from about 50 million users without their knowledge.

Citing unnamed sources, CNN reports Zuckerberg has "come to terms" with having to appear before Congress in coming weeks.

The news comes days after the embattled CEO suggested he might send someone to testify in his place.

"So this was a major breach of trust, and I'm really sorry that this happened," he told CNN in an interview last week. "You know, we have a basic responsibility to protect people's data. And if we can't do that, then we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people."

"The goal there is to get Congress all the information they need to do their extremely important job and we want to send whoever is best informed," he said.

Now Google and Twitter are feeling the heat as well. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has invited the CEOs of both social media giants to testify as well.
    
The data privacy hearing "will broadly cover privacy standards for the collection, retention and dissemination of consumer data for commercial use," the Washington Examiner quoted Grassley's office.

The hearing is set for April 10 in Washington, DC.