Today is the deadline the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee (DCMS) has given to Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to respond to a request for “oral evidence” regarding the harvesting of 50m Facebook accounts without their users’ knowledge.

Since then, Zuckerberg has issued a public apology in interviews and adverts placed in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. He has said: “This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time. We’re now taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

But the issue will rumble on because the business model of Facebook, and other tech giants is fundamentally about harvesting of data- the very process that has turned them into some of the biggest and most successful companies of all time.

If they are forced to drop these key aspects of their business, are broken up or are forced to do something else, investors will continue to dump their stock until the point of collapse.

The only alternative is if the many politicians and companies that rely on the tech giants for their continued success make sure none of these things happen.