[LudwigNagasena]

The EU Commission is a powerful barely accountable entity. It may be hypocritical for FB to defend privacy but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wrong.

[matthewheath]

In what way is it "barely accountable"? It's appointed by Member States directly through the European Council (the heads of each Member State who meet quarterly to discuss the EU), who propose nominations, and then confirmed by the MEPs from each Member State directly elected by their voters.

So, from two directly accountable bodies: the heads of state of each country, and then directly elected MEPs. If EU voters don't like their Commission, they can always vote in new MEPs and new governments to represent them on the Council.

There are many arguable democratic deficits within the EU, but isn't one of them in my opinion.

[raxxorrax]

Because "in practice" voters are extremely far removed from the decision process. And it isn't just a problem of scale.

It is like the US inverted. The voters don't vote the president directly, but the Trump vs Biden debate makes clear how things are done "in practice".

[cycomanic]

Well they are still orders of magnitude more accountable than facebook, that's the irony.