Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to testify before Congress to appease lawmakers and Facebook users who are clamoring for an explanation regarding the company's privacy practices, CNN Money reported Tuesday, citing unnamed "Facebook sources."
Zuckerberg has been under intense scrutiny after a whistleblower stepped forward to reveal the platform had exploited personal data; Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Trump's 2016 campaign team, allegedly accessed private information from 50 million Facebook users without permission.
Zuckerberg has apologized for the "breach of trust," but declined to testify before British lawmakers. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) invited Zuckerberg, along with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, to a hearing on data privacy on April 10, Bloomberg reports. The Facebook chief executive previously expressed that he was "open to" testifying; now he has reportedly determined that he must speak with U.S. officials and is strategizing for his testimony.