Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission criticized Facebook Inc on Thursday for making “misleading claims” to explain why it had disabled the accounts of researchers studying political ads on the social media platform.
Facebook said on Tuesday it had cut off the personal accounts and access of the New York University researchers because of concerns about other users’ privacy.
Facebook had initially said that the decision was made out of a need for the social media giant to live up to a consent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission.
But Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne later told Wired that the consent decree was not a reason to disable the researchers’ accounts. Instead, the decree required the creation of rules for a privacy program, which is what he said the researchers had violated.
Laura Edelson, one of the researchers, denied any wrongdoing, Wired said.
The FTC posted a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying that it was “inaccurate” that the company’s actions were required under the 2019 consent decree… Read More