PARIS, May 23, 2018 (News Wires) - Fresh from saying "sorry" to European lawmakers, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds talks with Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday where he will face renewed pressure over his company's tax policies. Zuckerberg apologised to the European Parliament on Tuesday for the "harm" caused by a huge breach of users' data and by a failure to crack down on fake news. And in a sign of the increasingly hostile environment for the social media giant in Europe, he is likely to face another grilling in France which has led efforts in the EU to force US tech giants to pay more tax. Facebook, along with Google, Apple and Amazon, are in the sights of Macron and other EU leaders over their use of low-tax countries such as Ireland to reduce their corporate tax rate to nominal levels. Macron "is looking to start a dialogue" with tech bosses "to have discussions that will sometimes be frank and direct, to talk about regulation and international governance," an aide said. Zuckerberg has been invited along with around 60 other tech bosses including Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi, IBM's Ginni Rometty, SAP's Bill McDermott and Jimmy Wales from Wikimedia. As well as talking tax regulation and the battle against fake news, which Macron has also vowed to tackle, the 40-year-old French president will be keen to stress his pro-business credentials at the "Tech for Good" summit. The former investment banker is desperate to attract more foreign investment to France and has vowed to turn the country into a "start-up nation."
