Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the Committee on Energy and Commerce on April 11, the committee confirmed on Wednesday.
Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) said in a joint statement that the hearing will be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues and help all Americans better understand what happens to their personal information online.
Walden and Pallone added that they appreciate Zuckerberg's willingness to testify before the committee and look forward to him answering their questions.
The Committee on Energy and Commerce is the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Zuckerberg will begin his testimony next Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. It'll be the first time Facebook's founder and CEO has testified before Congress.
Zuckerberg's appearance before Congress is in response to last month's Cambridge Analytica data fiasco and is without question the largest scandal the company has ever faced. Public response to the issue has been swift and heavy with multiple large companies pulling their ads from Facebook and several others deleting their official presence on the social network. Some have even publicly mocked Facebook over the incident.
Facebook has been in full-on damage control mode ever since, taking out full-page ads in major newspapers and rolling out enhanced privacy tools.
Additional details regarding the hearing will be posted on the committee's Hearings website as they become available.
Lead image courtesy James Martin, CNET