Facebook chief technology officer to answer questions from UK lawmakers instead of Mark Zuckerberg on 26 April

Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer will answer questions from British lawmakers on the social media giant’s recent data scandal on 26 April, a parliamentary committee said on 6 April.

Facebook Inc said on 4 April that the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica , up from previous estimates.

Lawmakers had asked Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg or another senior Facebook executive to explain to a parliamentary committee how the data got into Cambridge Analytica’s hands. Committee chair Damien Collins has said it was “astonishing” that Zuckerberg was not prepared to answer questions himself.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport   Committee said it would also hear from former Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix on 18 April, his second hearing, as well as from Aleksandr Kogan, a research associate at the centre of the scandal, on 24 April.