Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant to account after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to answer MPs’ questions.
The cache of documents is alleged to contain significant revelations about Facebook decisions on data and privacy controls that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It is claimed they include confidential emails between senior executives, and correspondence with Zuckerberg.
Commenting on Parliament’s intentions and the possible implications for Facebook is Paul Bischoff, Privacy Advocate with Comparitech.
Paul Bischoff, Privacy Advocate at Comparitech:
“Parliament’s seizure of the documents is mainly about culpability. We already know what happened with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, and to a reasonable degree we know how it happened. Instead, Parliament intends to find out what Zuckerberg and other senior Facebook staff knew at the time about the abuse of Facebook’s developer platform and whether they allowed it to continue. Any resulting evidence affirming Parliament’s suspicions that Facebook purposefully neglected the privacy of its users could lead to fines and additional regulations.”
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