Three more countries join the "big international committee" targeting Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook

An international coalition of elected officials investigating misinformation and electoral interference has expanded to include politicians from eight countries, according to a letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, reiterating his calls for this that he "large international committee. "

Legislators from Brazil, Latvia and Singapore have indicated in their letter that they will join the British, Canadian, Australian, Irish and Argentinian representatives for the unprecedented 27 November hearing.

Zuckerberg initially refused an invitation from Damian Collins, a member of the British Parliament, and Bob Zimmer, a Canadian legislator. He rejected an offer renewed last week after the committee's expansion to Argentine, Australian and Irish legislators. A representative of Facebook UK wrote at the time that Zuckerberg could not go to London for the hearing.

"Thank you for the invitation to appear before your big committee." As we explained in our letter of November 2, Mr. Zuckerberg is not able to travel to London on November 27 for your audience and apologize to him, "Stimson wrote.

But the committee, which now has eight member countries, suggested a new option for Zuckerberg in a letter sent Friday and made public Monday.

"We note that although your letter indicates that you are not able to be in London on the 27th, it does not exclude to testify as such." Would you be willing to testify? via a video link instead? " they wrote.

When asked if Zuckerberg was considering going to the remote committee, a Facebook representative said in an e-mail to CBS News: "We have nothing to do." other to share at this point, but we'll let you know if it changes. "

Facebook has repeatedly stated that its founder had appeared before the Congress and Parliament of the European Union, claiming in a letter of 2 November: "It is not possible for Mr. Zuckerberg to be available to all. parliaments ".

The members of the "big international committee" sought to resolve this problem by meeting, inviting Mr. Zuckerberg to meet them all at the same time, rather than separately.

The campaign to question Zuckerberg follows a November 5 report in which the British information commissioner concluded that "Facebook … has not managed to hold [users’] secure personal information, as they have failed to perform the appropriate controls on applications and developers using its platform. "

A previous scathing preliminary report released by the Collins committee in July called for increased scrutiny of social media companies and election campaigns, while highlighting the use of "destroyed" data on Facebook by companies associated with the crowned campaign Brexit success story and President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.