Liberals to ask parliamentary committee to summon Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify

The federal Liberals plan to put forward a motion accusing Google and Meta of using “intimidation and subversion tactics to evade regulation in Canada and across the world” at a parliamentary committee next week.

The motion also seeks to summon Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, to appear at the Heritage committee alongside other tech executives, and asks Facebook to provide three years’ worth of internal and external communications. Chris Bittle, parliamentary secretary to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, said on Twitter Thursday that Liberal MPs will present the motion at the Heritage committee meeting on Monday,

The Liberal government has been in a stand-off with both Google and Meta over Bill C-18, which would force the tech giants to share revenues with news publishers. The bill is currently in front of the Senate (Postmedia, publisher of the National Post, is in favour of the legislation).

Google blocked some Canadians’ access to news on its platforms in what the company said was a temporary test in response to Bill C-18. Last week, MPs from all major political parties admonished Google for the tests, and for not providing requested documents, at a meeting of the Heritage committee. Shortly afterwards, Meta said it would remove news content from Facebook and Instagram if Bill C-18 passes unchanged.

The Liberal motion also asked Meta to provide three years’ worth of internal and external communications relating to options it considered taking in response to Canadian regulation, among other documents.

The motion also asks Google executives to appear and for the company to provide additional documents and communications, and for the committee to hear from experts and hold at least five meetings.

It cites the “dominant market position of Meta and Google and each company’s recent actions in Canada which appear to be attempts to intimidate Parliament and which follow a pattern of repeated subversive tactics used by tech giants across the world to prevent accountability.”

Bittle said in a written comment that “as a committee we have genuine questions we want answered about Facebook’s choice to make this public declaration.” He said “we’re genuinely concerned” by what happened when Facebook pulled news from Australia, which he said “endangered the lives of Australians.”

Bittle has previously said that when Meta temporarily pulled news from its platform in response to similar legislation in Australia, it “over-blocked,” taking down information about vaccination sites and from organizations like search and rescue and fire services.