100 life-size cutouts of Mark Zuckerberg have been placed on the Capitol lawn in Washington

One hundred cardboard cutouts of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg have been erected on the lawn outside the Capitol building in Washington.

The cutouts, bearing T-shirts with “Fix Fakebook” written on them, were placed on the lawn ahead of Mr Zuckerberg’s appearance in front of the Senate.

He is facing a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees, followed by a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Facebook is facing scrutiny over its data collection following allegations that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtained data on tens of millions of Facebook users to try to influence elections.

Avaaz, the advocacy group behind the stunt, said it “intends to call attention to the hundreds of millions of fake accounts still spreading disinformation on Facebook”.

The group is calling on Mr Zuckerberg to “ban all bots, alert the public any and every time users see fake or disinformation, fund fact checkers around the world, and submit to an independent audit to review the scale and scope of fake news.”

Only weeks ago, the group’s volunteers put 7,000 shoes on the Capitol lawn, representing child victims of gun violence, to call for greater gun controls.