Facebook remains 'evasive' over Cambridge Analytica data, UK politicians say
A parliamentary committee is still battling for answers.
A UK parliamentary committee is frustrated with Facebook's answers to its questions.
Facebook continues to "display a pattern of evasive behavior" as it responds to questions about Cambridge Analytica's misuse of its data, the chair of a British parliamentary committee said Friday.
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee is investigating the digital consultancy's links to the social media giant as part of its inquiry into fake news.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal began in March after it was revealed that company, which was linked to the Trump presidential campaign, improperly accessed the personal information of up to 87 million Facebook users.
"Facebook continue to display a pattern of evasive behavior – a pattern which has emerged over the course of our inquiry," chair Damian Collins said of the company's most recent response to the committee. "In some cases, these answers even show inconsistencies in their evidence to us."
He cited digital political advertising, the amount being spent on security measures, country-by-country revenues and the company's refusal to accept accountability for fraudulent ads on its site as the areas where Facebook's response was lacking.
Collins says the committee will continue to push Facebook "until the public get the answers they deserve."
The MP has been fighting to have Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg face his committee and is looking into issuing a formal summons that would legally compel him to do so.
Facebook announced its efforts to increase transparency Thursday, by allowing people to see all the active ads a Facebook page is running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and its partner networks, even if the ads aren't being specifically targeted at them.
Last week, it announced an expansion of its third-party fact-checking program to 14 countries.
Cambridge Analytica: Everything you need to know about Facebook's data mining scandal.
Facebook says Cambridge Analytica had data on 87 million people: The fiasco was worse than we thought