BRUSSELS - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear before members of the European Parliament to answer questions about the improper use of users' data by a political consultancy, the speaker of the legislature said on Wednesday.

The world's largest social network has come under scrutiny over the way it handles personal data after revelations that British consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which worked on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign, improperly accessed the Facebook data of 87 million users.

"The founder and CEO of Facebook has accepted our invitation and will be in Brussels as soon as possible, hopefully already next week," Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament, said in a statement. The American would meet party leaders and members of the civil liberties committee.

"I welcome Mark Zuckerberg's decision to appear in person before the representatives of 500 million Europeans. It is a step in the right direction towards restoring confidence," Tajani said.

The British parliament also requested that Zuckerberg answer questions from lawmakers but the firm's chief technology officer attended that hearing instead.

Reuters