Standing Committee on Access
to Information, Privacy and
Ethics
Comité permanent de l'accès à
l'information, de la protection
des renseignements personnels
et de l'éthique
For immediate release
NEWS RELEASE
DIGITAL PLATFORM EXECUTIVES CALLED TO APPEAR BEFORE THE
SECOND MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL GRAND COMMITTEE ON
DISINFORMATION AND ‘FAKE NEWS’
Ottawa, February 20, 2019 -
Canada’s Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics has invited
executives from several digital platforms to testify at the second meeting of the International
Grand Committee on Disinformation and ‘Fake News’ which it is hosting in Ottawa on May 28.
Invitations have been sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg,
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and former Executive Chair Eric Schmidt, Apple CEO Tim Cook and
COO Jeff Williams, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and CEO of AWS Andrew Jassy, Twitter CEO
Jack Dorsey, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, and Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel.
“I am hopeful that these executives will take advantage of this unique opportunity to speak to
representatives from around the globe about what their platforms are doing to ensure the
privacy of our citizens,” said Bob Zimmer, MP and Chair of the Standing Committee on Access
to Information, Privacy and Ethics. “I am also looking forward to hearing from them about what
is being done to stop the spread of disinformation and how they are protecting users from the
threats of manipulation online.”
“It is vitally important that we hear from these top executives so that we can get the answers
we’ve been seeking,” Mr. Zimmer continued. “We will not be accepting testimony from regional
representatives at this meeting, as previous experience has shown that their answers have
proven to be frankly inadequate.”