Facebook could use some friends
- by Amanda Heroux
- in Science
- — Mar 21, 2018
Trump's former campaign manager and White House adviser Steve Bannon is also a former vice president of Cambridge Analytica, but the company said in a statement that none of the Facebook data in question was used as part of its consulting deal with the Trump campaign.
Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who led the committee's Russian Federation investigation, said he did not plan to call in Nix or other officials - saying the Russian Federation investigation was over, and it was up to Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to decide on future witnesses.
Some U.S. lawmakers are calling on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, called the Facebook breach a "serious issue" and says he is taking the request of holding a hearing with Zuckerberg "under advisement". You can use Facebook to log in and play games anonymously. The UK Information Commissioner's Office is pursuing a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's office and asked Facebook's auditors to stand down in the meantime, according to Facebook.
"I must emphatically state that Cambridge Analytica does not condone or engage in entrapment, bribes or so-called 'honeytraps, ' and nor does it use untrue material for any objective", Nix said.
The company's stock price has fallen almost 10 per cent since The New York Times and the Observer of London published weekend reports that users' data were improperly collected and shared with Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm founded with money from wealthy Republican donor Robert Mercer and former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon.
Schiff also called for the committee to bring in Facebook officials and again question Nix, who previously testified via video conference past year. But they should not obscure a broader truth: these actions were only possible because of the opportunities deliberately provided by Facebook and other technology companies, which within the space of a few years have become some of the most powerful organisations in the world due to the vast amounts of personal information they hold.
Facebook makes money by selling advertisements on its platform. Collins said the new powers for the commissioner would speed up the process.
Nix, along with the firm's managing global political director Mark Turnball, was secretly recorded by British television outlet Channel 4 boasting of their work for the Trump campaign while trying to land the business of what they believed was a deep-pocketed Sri Lankan.
In footage released Monday, Nix said the company could "send some girls" around to a rival candidate's house, suggesting that girls from Ukraine are attractive and effective in this role.
He also suggested making the rival candidate an offer "that's too good to be true" and then putting the video recording on the internet as "evidence of corruption".
Nix says in a statement that he deeply regrets his role in the meeting and has apologized to staff.
The competition is being funded by tech investor and Weblogs Inc.co-founder Jason Calacanis, who said he'd give $100,000 to seven teams and host them for a 12-week incubator.
Pressure is growing on Facebook regarding its links to Cambridge Analytica.
"The events of the past week have been a total shell shock", Kogan told the BBC.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood and 10 other groups are urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Facebook violated an agreement Facebook signed with the FTC in 2011 offering privacy assurances.
