OTTAWA — A panel of international politicians has voted to serve a summons on Facebook executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, compelling them to appear before the group the next time either sets foot on Canadian soil.
The international grand committee on big data, privacy and democracy is meeting in Ottawa this week, examining the role of internet giants in safeguarding privacy and democratic rights. Zuckerberg and Sandberg were called to testify but did not appear.
New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, a committee member, moved the motion, which sparked harsh criticism of the two Facebook leaders on Tuesday. Angus said they were showing disrespect to legislators around the world.
"Facebook has serious responsibilities in terms of the misuse of the platform that has led to mass killings in Myanmar, the undermining of electoral systems around the world, the attack on private rights and citizen rights," Angus said in an interview.
"Mr. Zuckerberg has stated his willingness to work with legislators but he seems to blow us off whenever it seems we want to ask him questions."
The committee's chair, Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, said it was "abhorrent" the two did not appear.
"As soon as they step foot — either Mr. Zuckerberg or Ms. Sandberg — into our country they will be served and expected to appear before our committee," said Zimmer.
If they refuse, said Zimmer, they will be held in contempt. It was not clear exactly what consequences that might have.
Conservative MP Peter Kent said Zuckerberg and Sandberg were showing "extreme disrespect and disregard" in not responding to the committee's summons.
The committee set up two chairs at a table with the pair's names on cards. The chairs sat empty.
Kevin Chan and Neil Potts, two of Facebook's global policy directors, did appear. Potts said they were appearing as subject matter experts for their company. The committee is made up of politicians from Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Ireland, Latvia and Singapore.
Jim Balsillie, the former chief executive of Research In Motion, which invented the BlackBerry smart phone, testified earlier Tuesday that a "toxic" social media business model is a threat to democracy.
Balsillie also offered a thinly veiled criticism of Zuckerberg and Sandberg for not responding to the committee's summons to testify.
"By displacing the print and broadcast media in influencing public opinion, technology is becoming the new Fourth Estate. In our system of checks and balances, this makes technology co-equal with the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary," he said.
"When this new Fourth Estate declines to appear before this committee — as Silicon Valley executives are currently doing — it is symbolically asserting this aspirational co-equal status ... The work of this international grand committee is a vital first step towards redress of this untenable current situation."
Balsillie, now the chair of the Ontario Centre for International Governance Innovation, said technology, if left unchecked, will displace print and broadcast media, and he urged a panel of politicians to impose restrictions on big internet companies.
"Social media's toxicity is not a bug — it's a feature," he said in testimony before an international committee of politicians at the start of the second of three days of meetings in Ottawa aimed at figuring out how best to protect citizens' privacy and democratic fairness in the age of social media.
In its remaining sessions in Ottawa, the committee is to hear from experts on how best governments can prevent the use of social media to violate individuals' privacy, spread fake news, sow dissension and manipulate election outcomes.
This week's meeting — the second since last year's inaugural gathering in Britain — is being hosted by the House of Commons committee on access to information, privacy and ethics.
During Monday's opening session experts painted a grim, almost apocalyptic, picture of democracy under assault.
Prior to the start of the meeting, Facebook, Google and Microsoft signed onto a declaration promising a dozen initiatives to protect the integrity of the Canadian election this fall — including working to remove phoney social-media accounts and fake content.
But other tech giants, including Twitter, have not signed on.
Experts, meanwhile, are warning that such efforts to address disinformation and online attempts to sow dissension and manipulate election outcomes are focusing merely on symptoms of a much larger problem: the very business model that underpins the tech giants.
