The famous social network Facebook is involved in a new scandal. This is the third time in two years that Facebook is showing off for it excesses.
The first big scandal of Facebook was the Russian interference in the American presidential campaign. Between June 2015 and August 2017, 80,000 political publications were posted to Facebook via accounts from Russia. Given the huge number of publications may have had an impact during the months pre and post presidential election of November 2016. Facebook first stated that 10 million American users have seen political ads purchased in Russia. However, these figures have been revised upwards and would reach 126 million US users. The ads focused on sensitive topics such as immigration, firearms and racial issues.
The second scandal is about Cambridge Analytica. This data analytics company has had access to data from about 87 million Facebook users. These data were used by the company for Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2016 presidential election. Facebook has also admitted that data from almost all its users, which are over 2 billion, have been retrieved and used without their consent by other organizations.
Finally, last September a major security breach was discovered. Hackers have successfully hacked into the accounts of 29 million users and therefore had access to their personal data. Pirates have accessed to names, addresses, phone numbers, as well as information about date of birth, place of residence and internet pages followed by users.
Facebook has always managed to get through the scandals. However, this time Facebook is targeted by the Commission on Digital, Culture and Media. The British House of Commons has unveiled a 250-page file which includes emails sent by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg. The emails would show that agreements have been reached for full access to the data.
Facebook completely denies the accusations and claims to never have sold data. One thing is for sure, the scandals follow each other for the social network and it still tarnishes its reputation.