Fallout over Facebook’s scandals didn’t take a holiday.
In the latest repercussion from the company’s Cambridge Analytica privacy flap, the British Parliament has seized a cache of documents that reportedly reveal how decisions made by the world’s largest social network led to the scandal in which the political data consulting firm harvested the information of up to 87 million Facebook users without their permission.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly has refused to appear before Parliament, which wants answers about Cambridge Analytica and Russians’ use of the social network to spread false information. In the United States, Zuckerberg has appeared before legislators, but the Silicon Valley giant sends other executives when it comes to answering questions from lawmakers abroad.
“This is an unprecedented move, but it’s an unprecedented situation,” said Damian Collins, chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee of Parliament, according to the Guardian. “We’ve failed to get answers from Facebook and we believe the documents contain information of very high public interest.”
The seized documents are related to a lawsuit filed against Facebook by Six4Three, a developer of an app that let Facebook users search for friends’ bikini photos. The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Facebook destroyed the developer’s business after it changed its policies regarding sharing information with third-party app developers in 2015. The founder of Six4Three was in London on business and was forced to hand over the documents — which are under seal by court order — the Guardian reported.
When reached for comment Monday, Facebook passed along a copy of a letter to Collins from Richard Allan, Facebook VP of policy solutions, who tried again to keep the contents of the documents from becoming public: “I understand that Parliamentary privilege protects participants for anything said during a hearing of your committee. … It may be helpful for us to discuss this matter again after we have further guidance from the court.”
Facebook’s battle overseas comes as it deals with fallout from the revelation this month by the New York Times that the company employed Definers, a Republican-led firm, to do opposition research on its critics and rivals. Last week, outgoing Head of Communications and Policy Elliot Schrage acknowledged in a blog post that “Definers helped us respond to unfair claims where Facebook was been singled out for criticism. They also helped positively distinguish us from competitors.” Schrage denied that Facebook asked Definers to distribute fake news.
