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MPs summon Mark Zuckerberg and accuse Facebook of misleading them MPs summon Mark Zuckerberg and accuse Facebook of misleading them
(35 minutes later)
MPs have summoned Mark Zuckerberg to appear before a select committee investigating fake news and accused his company of misleading them at a previous hearing.MPs have summoned Mark Zuckerberg to appear before a select committee investigating fake news and accused his company of misleading them at a previous hearing.
The Facebook founder has been called to give evidence to the digital, culture, media and sport committee, following revelations over the use of its data by the election consultancy Cambridge Analytica.The Facebook founder has been called to give evidence to the digital, culture, media and sport committee, following revelations over the use of its data by the election consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
The company has also come under the spotlight in the US, after an investigation by the Observer, Channel 4 News and the New York Times revealed that 50m user profiles had been accessed and harvested for data.
In a letter to Zuckerberg, the committee’s chair, Damian Collins, wrote that Facebook had been repeatedly asked about how companies acquired and held on to user data from its site, and whether data had been taken without users’ consent.In a letter to Zuckerberg, the committee’s chair, Damian Collins, wrote that Facebook had been repeatedly asked about how companies acquired and held on to user data from its site, and whether data had been taken without users’ consent.
“Your officials’ answers have consistently understated this risk, and have been misleading to the committee,” he wrote. “Your officials’ answers have consistently understated this risk and have been misleading to the committee,” he wrote. “It is now time to hear from a senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process … Given your commitment at the start of the new year to ‘fixing’ Facebook, I hope that this representative will be you.”
“It is now time to hear from a senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process ... Given your commitment at the start of the new year to ‘fixing’ Facebook, I hope that this representative will be you.” The committee said Facebook had failed to provide follow-up evidence after the last hearing, and that this week’s revelations had raised new questions for the inquiry. On Wednesday it will take evidence from a former Facebook operations manager, Sandy Parakilas.
The letter gave a deadline of 26 March for a response.The letter gave a deadline of 26 March for a response.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg has reported that the US Federal Trade Commission is to look at whether Facebook violated an agreement over its use of consumers’ personal data. The agreement was reached in 2011 following previous concerns about its handling of privacy issues. In December 2016, while researching the US presidential election, Carole Cadwalladr came across data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, whose secretive manner and chequered track record belied its bland, academic-sounding name. Her initial investigations uncovered the role of American billionaire Robert Mercer in the US election campaign: his strategic “war” on mainstream media and his political campaign funding, some apparently linked to Brexit. She found the first indications that Cambridge Analytica might have used data processing methods that breached the Data Protection Act. That article prompted Britain’s Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner’s Office to launch investigations whose remits include Cambridge Analytica’s use of data and its possible links to the Brexit referendum. These investigations are still continuing, as is a wider ICO inquiry into the use of data in politics. While chasing the details and ramifications of complex manipulation of both data and funding law, Cadwalladr came under increasing attacks, both online and professionally, from key players. The Leave.EU campaign tweeted a doctored video that showed her being violently assaulted, and the Russian embassy wrote to the Observer to complain that her reporting was a “textbook example of bad journalism”. But the growing profile of her reports also gave whistleblowers confidence that they could trust her to not only understand their stories, but retell them clearly for a wide audience. Her network of sources and contacts grew to include not only former employees who regretted their work but academics, lawyers and others concerned about the impact on democracy of tactics employed by Cambridge Analytica and associates. Cambridge Analytica is now the subject of special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probing of the company’s role in Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign. Investigations in the UK also remain live.
The call by MPs follows revelations by the Observer, Channel 4 News and the New York Times of how data from the social media site was deployed by Cambridge Analytica without users’ consent. In the US, a White House spokesman said Donald Trump believed Americans’ privacy should be protected and that he would welcome investigations into the breach.
They prompted the UK’s information commissioner to seek an urgent court warrant to enter the London headquarters of Cambridge Analytica after the firm was caught in an undercover sting boasting about entrapping politicians, using honey traps and running fake news campaigns. “The president believes that Americans’ privacy should be protected. You know, if Congress wants to look into the matter or other agencies want to look into the matter, we welcome that,” the deputy press secretary Raj Shah told Fox News. “Without knowing the specifics, it’s difficult to tell whether an individual should testify but we do support the privacy of American citizens.”
Elizabeth Denham said she had also demanded that Facebook halt a data audit of Cambridge Analytica, saying it could prejudice her investigation. Representatives of Facebook are expected to brief Senate and White House aides on Wednesday, and the US Federal Trade Commission is reported to be looking at whether it violated an agreement over its use of consumers’ personal data. The agreement was reached in 2011 following previous concerns about Facebook’s handling of privacy issues.
Cybersecurity consultants from Stroz Friedberg, who had been engaged by Facebook to do the audit, were at CA’s office in London on Monday evening when the ICO asked them to leave so the authorities could pursue their own investigation. The inquiries follow revelations of how data from Facebook was deployed by Cambridge Analytica (CA) without users’ consent, and of boasts by the latter company to undercover reporters about the role it could play in political campaigns.
An ICO spokesman said the commission had issued a demand to access CA’s records and data. The UK’s information commissioner has announced her intention to investigate CA, but on Tuesday she was still awaiting a warrant to enter its central London offices. A Huffington Post reporter said he had seen around 10 crates of documents being removed from the building, which is shared with other tenants.
“Cambridge Analytica has not responded to the commissioner by the deadline provided; therefore, the information commissioner is seeking a warrant to obtain information and access to systems and evidence related to her investigation,” the spokesman said. The office of the information commissioner said it wasn’t responsible for removing any files.
Facebook had agreed to stop its search of Cambridge Analytica’s premises at the commissioner’s request, the spokesman said.
“Such a search would potentially compromise a regulatory investigation.”
On Wednesday about 10 crates filled with files and documents were carried out of the building where Cambridge Analytica is based and loaded into a rental delivery van, the Huffington Post reported. Two men loading the van declined to comment when asked if they worked for the company.
Crates filled with documents have been seen being removed from the same building as Cambridge Analytica's HQ. Their provenance cannot be verified. A delivery person did not answer questions, while a van driver said: "No comment". pic.twitter.com/mBPEYZxmQwCrates filled with documents have been seen being removed from the same building as Cambridge Analytica's HQ. Their provenance cannot be verified. A delivery person did not answer questions, while a van driver said: "No comment". pic.twitter.com/mBPEYZxmQw
Meanwhile, Collins said it was extraordinary that Facebook’s investigators had been in the CA office and questioned their motives. The commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said she had also demanded that Facebook halt an data audit of CA which had commenced, saying it could prejudice her investigation.
Cyber-security consultants from Stroz Friedberg, who had been engaged by Facebook to do the audit, were at CA’s office in London on Monday evening when the ICO asked them to leave so the authorities could pursue its their own investigation.
Collins said it was extraordinary that Facebook’s investigators had been in the CA office, and he questioned their motives.
“We were told this last night and I don’t think the information commissioner was aware of that at that time,” he told the BBC. “This is a matter for the authorities. Facebook sent in data analysts and lawyers who they appointed; what they intended to do there, who knows?“We were told this last night and I don’t think the information commissioner was aware of that at that time,” he told the BBC. “This is a matter for the authorities. Facebook sent in data analysts and lawyers who they appointed; what they intended to do there, who knows?
“The concern would have been, were they removing information or evidence which could have been vital to the investigation? It’s right they stood down but it’s astonishing they were there in the first place.”“The concern would have been, were they removing information or evidence which could have been vital to the investigation? It’s right they stood down but it’s astonishing they were there in the first place.”
The Channel 4 News investigation, broadcast on Monday, comes two days after the Observer reported Cambridge Analytica had gained unauthorised access to tens of millions of Facebook profiles in one of the social media company’s biggest data breaches. In a statement on Tuesday, CA said it had been in touch with the information commissioner’s office since February 2017, when it had hosted its team in its London office.
In December 2016, while researching the US presidential election, Carole Cadwalladr came across data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, whose secretive manner and chequered track record belied its bland, academic-sounding name. Her initial investigations uncovered the role of American billionaire Robert Mercer in the US election campaign: his strategic “war” on mainstream media and his political campaign funding, some apparently linked to Brexit. She found the first indications that Cambridge Analytica might have used data processing methods that breached the Data Protection Act. That article prompted Britain’s Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner’s Office to launch investigations whose remits include Cambridge Analytica’s use of data and its possible links to the Brexit referendum. These investigations are still continuing, as is a wider ICO inquiry into the use of data in politics. While chasing the details and ramifications of complex manipulation of both data and funding law, Cadwalladr came under increasing attacks, both online and professionally, from key players. The Leave.EU campaign tweeted a doctored video that showed her being violently assaulted, and the Russian embassy wrote to the Observer to complain that her reporting was a “textbook example of bad journalism”. But the growing profile of her reports also gave whistleblowers confidence that they could trust her to not only understand their stories, but retell them clearly for a wide audience. Her network of sources and contacts grew to include not only former employees who regretted their work but academics, lawyers and others concerned about the impact on democracy of tactics employed by Cambridge Analytica and associates. Cambridge Analytica is now the subject of special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probing of the company’s role in Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign. Investigations in the UK also remain live.
On Monday, Cambridge Analytica’s chief executive, Alexander Nix, said the media attacks were because of his firm’s role in the successful presidential election campaign of Donald Trump.
Nix, one of the CA executives targeted by the undercover Channel 4 reporters, suggested he could use women to entrap politicians on behalf of their rivals.
“Deep digging is interesting, but you know equally effective can be just to go and speak to the incumbents and to offer them a deal that’s too good to be true, and make sure that that’s video recorded. You know, these sorts of tactics are very effective, instantly having video evidence of corruption, putting it on the internet, these sorts of things,” he was recorded saying.
Nix said they could “send some girls around to the candidate’s house”, adding that Ukrainian girls “are very beautiful, I find that works very well”, Channel 4 reported.
Nix told BBC’s Newsnight the sting was “a coordinated attack by the media that’s been going on for very, very many months”. He added, however, that he had a “huge amount of regrets about the fact that we, maybe, undertook this meeting and spoke with a certain amount of hyperbole about some of the things that we do”.
Alexander James Ashburner Nix
42
Eton, then Manchester University, where he studied history of art
Nix worked as a financial analyst in Mexico and the UK before joining SCL, a strategic communications firm, in 2003. From 2007 he took over the company’s elections division, and claims to have worked on more than 40 campaigns globally. Many of SCL’s projects are secret, so that may be a low estimate. He set up Cambridge Analytica to work in America, with investment from US hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer. He has been both hailed as a visionary – featuring on Wired’s list of “25 Geniuses who are creating the future of business” – and derided as a snake oil salesman.
Cambridge Analytica has come under scrutiny for its role in elections on both sides of the Atlantic, working on Brexit and Donald Trump’s election team. It is a key subject in two inquiries in the UK – by the Electoral Commission, into the firm’s possible role in the EU referendum, and the Information Commissioner’s Office, into data analytics for political purposes – and one in the US, as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Trump-Russia collusion. The Observer revealed this week that the company had harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters, in one of the tech giant’s biggest ever data breaches, and used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box. Emma Graham-Harrison
Collins said on Tuesday that MPs would examine whether they felt Nix had misled parliament when he answered their questions during the committee’s investigation into fake news.
“On the face of it, it looks like Mr Nix misled parliament. We want to be absolutely certain what he meant,” he said. “Certainly, what he told us in front of the select committee is not at all consistent with the evidence we now have from these various investigations.”
In a statement on its website Cambridge Analytica said it had been in touch with the information commissioner’s office since February 2017, when it had hosted its team in its London office.
“Since early last year we have subsequently cooperated with the ICO on multiple lines of enquiry, including most recently on the Facebook data and derivatives that we received from GSR, the research company that we engaged in good faith to legally supply data for research.“Since early last year we have subsequently cooperated with the ICO on multiple lines of enquiry, including most recently on the Facebook data and derivatives that we received from GSR, the research company that we engaged in good faith to legally supply data for research.
“On this point we have offered to share with the ICO all the information that it asked for and for the ICO to attend our office voluntarily, subject to our agreeing the scope of the inspection.”“On this point we have offered to share with the ICO all the information that it asked for and for the ICO to attend our office voluntarily, subject to our agreeing the scope of the inspection.”
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