Earlier this week, Facebook on its threats to chop a gaggle of New York University researchers off from its platform. The researchers have been a part of a undertaking referred to as the , which recruited volunteers to review how Facebook targets political advertisements on its platform.
In it determination to ban the researchers, Facebook repeatedly referred to its obligations to the FTC saying it was performing towards the researchers “in line with our privacy program under the FTC Order” — a reference to the corporate’s 2019 with the company over lax privateness practices. But the social community’s actions have been by the analysis group and free speech advocates, who stated the corporate was stopping authentic analysis below the guise of “scraping.” As Wired identified, the corporate’s settlement with the FTC doesn’t even prohibit what the researchers have been truly doing.
Now, the FTC has , calling the corporate’s rationalization of its actions was “misleading” and “inaccurate.” In a sharply worded letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Acting Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection Samuel Levine, stated that he was “disappointed by how your company has conducted itself in this matter.”
“The FTC is committed to protecting the privacy of people, and efforts to shield targeted advertising practices from scrutiny run counter to that mission,” Levine wrote. “Had you honored your commitment to contact us in advance, we would have pointed out that the consent decree does not bar Facebook from creating exceptions for good-faith research in the public interest. Indeed, the FTC supports efforts to shed light on opaque business practices, especially around surveillance-based advertising. While it is not our role to resolve individual disputes between Facebook and third parties, we hope that the company is not invoking privacy – much less the FTC consent order – as a pretext to advance other aims.”
Facebook didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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