Facebook documents could be published by UK MP Damian Collins

Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg.
Reuters

• British lawmakers appear to be leaning towards
  publishing a cache of Facebook documents they have seized under
  a rare parliamentary mechanism.
• Damian Collins, the chair of the Digital, Culture,
  Media and Sport Committee, said there is a “high level of
  public interest” in making the papers public.
• The documents could contain explosive revelations about
  how Facebook’s privacy policy allowed Cambridge Analytica to
  secure the data of 87 million users.
• Facebook policy boss Richard Allan will be grilled by
  Collins’ committee on Tuesday, when the debate over the
  documents could come to a head. 

Facebook looks set for another bruising week as it continues to
be dogged by the catastrophic Cambridge Analytica data breach,
which was first exposed in March.

The social network is scrambling to suppress the release of a
cache of legal documents that were seized by British lawmakers
after they invoked a rare parliamentary mechanism.

But Damian Collins, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and
Sport Committee which secured the papers, said in an email to
Facebook on Sunday evening that there is a “high level of public
interest” in making them public.

His committee secured the documents from Ted Kramer, the founder
of software company Six4Three, who obtained them as part of legal
action his firm is taking against Facebook in California.
Six4Three claims its app, Pikini, was killed when Facebook
stopped app developers from accessing friend data in 2015.

Read more: Facebook won’t say if it will
sever ties with Elliot Schrage, the outgoing top exec who took
responsibility for linking critics to George Soros

Kramer was compelled to hand over the evidence on a visit to
London, according to The Observer.
After initially refusing, he was escorted to parliament, where he
was told he could face a fine or imprisonment if he failed to
produce the documents, the newspaper added.

The documents could contain explosive revelations about how
Facebook’s privacy policy allowed Cambridge Analytica to secure
the data of 87 million users, The Observer said.

“We have asked many questions of Facebook about its policies on
sharing user data with developers, how these have been enforced,
and how the company identifies activity by bad actors,” Collins
said in an email to Facebook public policy chief Richard Allan.

“We believe that the documents we have ordered from Six4Three
could contain important information about this which is of a high
public interest. We are also interested to know whether the
policies of Facebook, as expressed within these documents, are
consistent with the public statements the company has made on the
same issues.”

Earlier on Sunday, Allan had written to Collins to say that
Six4Three’s lawsuit is “entirely without merit” and the documents
obtained by the parliamentary committee are under seal by court
order. 

A Facebook spokeswoman added: “Six4Three’s claims are
entirely meritless — Facebook has never traded Facebook data for
anything and we’ve always made clear that developer access is
subject to both our policies and what info people choose to
share.

“We operate in a fiercely competitive market in which people
connect and share. For every service offered on Facebook and our
family of apps, you can find at least three or four competing
services with hundreds of millions, if not billions, of
users.” 

Allan is poised to give evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media
and Sport Committee on Tuesday, when the debate over releasing
the Six4Three documents could come to a head. A spokeswoman for
the committee declined to comment on whether the documents will
be made public, but said there will be a further update on
Monday.

The evidence session forms part of Collins’ work to assemble an
“international grand committee” on fake news, meaning
parliamentarians from six other countries will be present. The
lawmakers from countries, including Canada, Brazil, and Ireland,
will also hold a press conference, during which it is likely they
will question Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision not to
appear before the joint international committee.