Mark Zuckerberg will meet with EU regulators, president says

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Aaron P. Bernstein | Reuters

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing regarding the company’s use and protection of user data, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 10, 2018.

Mark Zuckerberg declined an invitation to testify before U.K. officials, but he's agreed to meet with the EU Parliament as soon as next week.

"The Conference of Presidents has agreed that Mark Zuckerberg should come to clarify issues related to the use of personal data in a meeting with representatives of the European Parliament," Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament, said in a statement. "The founder and CEO of Facebookhas accepted our invitation and will be in Brussels as soon as possible, hopefully already next week."

EU officials have issued some of the strictest regulation on Silicon Valley in recent months, most notably the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, that is requiring major tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to significantly adjust privacy policies.

"Our citizens deserve a full and detailed explanation," Tajani said. "Web giants must be responsible for the content they publish."

Facebook is facing governmental probes from regulators around the world in the wake of reports that research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to the sensitive information of as many as 87 million Facebook users.

A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed Zuckerberg accepted the invitation to meet.

"[We] appreciate the opportunity for dialogue, to listen to their views and show the steps we are taking to better protect people's privacy," the spokesperson said.

Here's Tajani's full statement: