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WEB DESK

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg was today summoned before a UK parliamentary committee amid a growing row over data breaches linked to the popular social media company.

The summons letter to 33-year-old Zuckerberg was sent by Damian Collins, the chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which is investigating the issue of fake news.

The letter states, it is now time to hear from a senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process.

The letter has come as the UK’s Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said she would be applying to court for a warrant to search the offices of the UK-based political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

The firm is accused of using the data of 50 million Facebook members to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

The company, which counts India among a list of numerous countries where it has done election-related work, is in the eye of a storm after its senior executives were filmed by an undercover reporter giving examples of how the firm could discredit political rivals by arranging various smear campaigns.