Facebook: Details of Mark Zuckerberg and Matt Hancock meeting released

Details of a 2018 meeting between Facebook's CEO and then Culture Secretary Matt Hancock have been published after an FOI request by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The papers show Mark Zuckerberg called the UK "anti-tech" and expressed concern over the government's "tone".

Mr Hancock said he wanted to work with the company to implement an "innovation friendly" law.

A Facebook spokesman said the company had long been in favour of regulation.

The release of documents comes on the same day the government announced it would issue Facebook, Google and the other tech giants with a set of rules customised to each firm, and penalise them if they fail to obey.

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The minutes - published after a two year legal battle - reveal details of a meeting that took place in May 2018 at a technology conference in Paris - a time when the social media giant was embroiled in the Cambridge-Analytica scandal.

It involved the data of millions of Facebook users being collected for election advertising.

Earlier in the same year Mr Hancock had described the data breach as "totally unacceptable" and likened internet culture to the "Wild West".

He also said Mr Zuckerberg's failure to attend a parliamentary hearing was "one of the reasons" he would introduce a law to regulate the internet.

At the time, the House of Commons culture committee had expressed anger that the Facebook founder had refused to answer questions from its MPs.

'Wrangling'

The minutes made by the culture department said the meeting between the two men was only fixed "after several days of wrangling" and on the condition that "we were after a positive meeting and wouldn't simply demand MZ [Mark Zuckerberg] attended the select committee."

The document also says Mr Zuckerberg "spoke of an anti-tech UK government and said he jokes about adding the UK as the only country in the world he will not visit".

"MZ said the UK is the obvious territory in Europe for them to invest in, but they are now considering looking elsewhere."

He also said he supported the government's decision to seek to regulate the internet through law but was "worried about tone".

Mr Hancock said he "wanted to use the decision to legislate as a new beginning for UK government relationships with platforms" and that "the tone can shift from threatening regulation to encouraging collaborative working to ensure legislation is proportionate and innovation-friendly."

'Running scared'

Responding to the Freedom of Information (FOI) release, ex-chair of the culture committee Damien Collins said the notes proved Mr Zuckerberg had been "running scared" of MPs' investigation into disinformation and fake news.

And he accused him of being "afraid" of scrutiny.

A spokesman for the company said: "Facebook has long said we need new regulations to set high standards across the internet.

"In fact last year Mark Zuckerberg called on governments to establish new rules around harmful content, privacy, data portability, and election integrity.

"The UK is our largest engineering hub outside of the US and just this year we created 1,000 new roles in the country."