META Meta Platforms Inc

By Sam Schechner and Natalia Drozdkiak 

If you thought Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg got off too easy in his recent testimony before Congress, you may want to tune in when he speaks to European lawmakers in Brussels on Tuesday.

The European Parliament has a record of being tough on tech giants. It once voted in favor of a resolution, albeit symbolic, to break up Google and it pushed for larger fines under the European Union's new data-privacy law, GDPR, that goes into effect Friday.

The stakes are high for Facebook and other tech firms. Lawmakers are using the social network as Exhibit A when arguing that the EU should pass another bill under consideration that would further tighten the bloc's privacy laws.

The hearing starts at 6:30 p.m. local time, or 12:30 p.m. ET, and here are several things to watch:

Muscle-flexing

Lawmakers will likely try to hammer home the scale of potential data misuse on the continent, stressing that Europeans aren't second-class users. Facebook says as many as 2.7 million Europeans may have had their personal information improperly obtained by data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica. Some MEPs have said that "simple apologies won't do" and they will likely seek clarity from Facebook on how it intends to rebuild users' trust. Lawmakers will also more broadly press Facebook on alleged election interference on its platform -- an issue of interest to MEPs, who face elections next spring.

The EU's new privacy law

Lawmakers will likely pose tough questions about Facebook's plans to comply with the EU's new privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which goes into effect Friday. Some digital-advertising companies say the law could actually strengthen the position of Google and Facebook. Lawmakers who wrote it will be eager to show how the law, which introduces new obligations for companies and new rights for individuals, will rein in the big firms. One hot-button question under GDPR: how much of your data is truly necessary for Facebook to provide its service, meaning users have to provide it to get access.

Questions about Facebook's reach

Look for how far lawmakers broaden the discussion beyond Cambridge Analytica and privacy to the company's dominant role as a social media network. European policy makers have expressed concern that Facebook has done too little to tamp down on fake news and hate speech on its platform. Germany's competition watchdog issued a preliminary decision in December that Facebook strong-arms users into allowing it to collect data about them from elsewhere on the internet, such as websites with "like" buttons.

The format

Tuesday's hearing will take place in an unusual format for the European Parliament. The 12 leaders of the legislature's political groups will question Mr. Zuckerberg -- a format normally reserved for in-house decisions, which typically take place behind closed doors. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, European lawmakers will be well-versed in the world of tech regulation, partly because they've already passed such legislation. Still, the format means the questioning legislators won't be the most specialized. The parliament made an exception and added one specialist to the panel of inquisitors: the MEP who led on GDPR, Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German politician from the Green Party who is due to step down in July. Expect his questions to be among the most incisive.

Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2018 06:39 ET (10:39 GMT)

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