Adam Mosseri, the Instagram head who left the app in July, will testify before the House judiciary and commerce committees on the social media platform’s interference in the 2016 US election and its use of its billion-dollar data business to influence elections worldwide.
The Instagram chief executive has apologized for not protecting user data, and said in his resignation letter that the company’s error in policy, combined with security failures, led to “reaching a boiling point with a community that uses our products every day.”
The US Senate Judiciary Committee has asked Zuckerberg to testify next month.
Mosseri’s addition to Congress’ witness list follows Facebook and Google executives’ statements to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing last week, during which all three denied any wrongdoing.
Facebook has repeatedly admitted its role in Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election by, for example, covertly running ads on the social media network and spreading false information about US policies. It’s far from the only online company to face scrutiny: “The Internet,” writes Senator Lindsey Graham, “is changing our politics, changing our economy, and upsetting the apple cart of traditional media,” according to the Senator. “It’s no longer a question of if future elections will be impacted. It’s when.”