Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces immense pressure from lawmakers over data breach related to the involvement of Cambridge Analytica and the election of President Donald J Trump in the US.
The US-based social media network suspended UK-based Cambridge Analytica, which did not erase the user data after gaining access in 2015. Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign gained inappropriate access to data on 50 million Facebook users.
Facebook CEO has already been under fire for the company’s role in spreading fake news to its readers across the globe.
It is emerged that Cambridge Analytica also ran the campaigns of President Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2013 and 2017 Kenyan elections, according to video secretly recorded and broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 News.
Facebook shares fell 4 percent in pre-market on Monday knocking $21.5 billion off the social network’s market value of $538 billion as of Friday’s close. One Wall Street analyst said the reports raised ‘systemic problems’ with Facebook’s business model and a number said it could spur far deeper regulatory scrutiny of the platform.
Facebook faces substantial business risks from new European Union privacy rules set to take effect in May.
Investors are asking even more questions about the social media company’s operations that influence several billion people globally.
Media reported that Facebook chief information security officer Alex Stamos is leaving the company in August, citing internal disagreements over how the social network should deal with its role in spreading disinformation.
Britain’s data protection authority plans to seek a warrant to search the offices on Tuesday of London-based political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told Channel 4 News.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg asking for answers to questions regarding the social media company’s policies for sharing user data with third parties.
Republican Senator John Kennedy has joined his Democratic colleague Amy Klobuchar in calling on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress following reports that a political consultancy gained inappropriate access to data on millions of Facebook users.
EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova plans to discuss the alleged misuse of more than 50 million Facebook users’ data with the U.S. social network and with the U.S. government on her visit to the United States this week.
