UK lawmakers back off threat to release Facebook documents

But a committee of members of the UK parliament stopped short of releasing documents Facebook (FB) has been trying to keep from the public.

Organizers described the unusual event on Tuesday as the inaugural hearing of the "International Grand Committee on Disinformation." Topics included data protection and online disinformation.

Lawmakers from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom attended.

One star witness was missing, however. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was repeatedly asked to attend, but the tech company has instead dispatched one of his deputies.

The committee left an open seat for the CEO on Tuesday, complete with a nameplate.

A nameplate and empty chair left for Mark Zuckerberg at the hearing.

Lawmakers questioned Richard Allan, the company's vice president of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Allan is a former member of the UK parliament.

"We've never seen anything quite like Facebook, where while we were playing on our phones and apps, our democratic institutions ... seem to have been upended by frat boy billionaires from California," said Charlie Angus, a lawmaker from Canada, as the hearing got underway.

Damian Collins, the lawmaker who leads the British parliamentary committee investigating disinformation, made headlines over the weekend when he obtained internal Facebook documents.

The documents are under court seal in the United States. Facebook wrote to Collins on Sunday asking him to consider hearing from the US court before making the documents public.

The crazy tale of how the UK parliament ended up with secret Facebook documents

Collins wrote in a response to Facebook on Sunday that he had the power to publish the documents.

He said that the documents could shed light on "whether the policies of Facebook ... are consistent with the public statements the company has made on the same issues."

Collins changed tact on Tuesday, however, saying he would not release the documents during the hearing.

Facebook has endured a year of negative headlines about fake news, election meddling and privacy concerns. Zuckerberg pushed back on some of the unrelenting critical coverage last week in an interview with CNN Business.

Members of parliament have certain legal immunities when conducting official proceedings.

This protection from prosecution ensures freedom of speech, including documents and reports published as part of parliamentary proceedings.

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