Mike Schroepfer may not have been Mark Zuckerberg, but Facebook’s chief technology officer was nevertheless forced to admit in front of MPs that the company had made errors in its handling of the Cambridge Analytica data breach, faced questions over what the company had not told MPs in a previous hearing, and apologised for threatening the Guardian with legal action.
Here are the five main points from his appearance before the digital, culture, media and sport select committee:
1. Facebook missed opportunities to prevent and then deal appropriately with the data breach at the time. Schroepfer acknowledged that nobody at Facebook had read the terms and conditions behind Aleksander Kogan’s data harvesting questionnaire when he proposed it in 2014. The company only found out about the breach in late 2015 after the Guardian first reported that Kogan’s data had been shared with Cambridge Analytica. Schroepfer said that Facebook had demanded that the 87m records collected were deleted, but the breach was not reported to regulators. “It was a mistake not to inform people at the time,” Schroepfer was forced to concede.
2. Facebook “lacked integrity” because it failed to tell MPs the extent of the data breach at a previous hearing in February. Ian Lucas, a Labour MP, relentlessly pressed Schroepfer as to why company executives had not admitted what Facebook knew about the data breach when they gave evidence to the committee in February. Schroepfer struggled to explain, saying: “A lot of this has come to light in sharp relief for us in the last month.” Lucas was very critical: “I remain unconvinced the company has integrity.” The MP then asked what Mark Zuckerberg knew at the time and whether he would give evidence. “I will report back,” Schroepfer said.
3. It was wrong for Facebook to threaten legal action against the Guardian as an article about the Cambridge Analytica data breach was close to publication. Julian Knight, a Conservative MP and former journalist, demanded that Schroepfer apologise for “this bullying tactic”. The Facebook executive left MPs incredulous as he said “my understanding is that this is common practice in the UK”. When pressed by Knight again, Schroepfer finally apologised: “I am sorry that journalists feel we are attempting to prevent the truth coming out.”
4. Facebook said leave campaigners had spent $2m on digital adverts during the referendum campaign. The money was spent by Aggregate IQ, the Canadian data company used by Vote Leave and other pro-Brexit campaigns, although the figure disclosed was noticeably lower than the £3.5m that pro-Brexit campaigns told the Electoral Commission they had spent with the same firm. There was no discussion about why the sums differed.
5. Official inquiries are ongoing. Schroepfer said he had met the information commissioner this week, and that the company had provided information to the Electoral Commission. He was then pressed on why Facebook executives were in Cambridge Analytica’s office at the time the data breach revelations emerged. Knight asked if Facebook was “perverting the course of justice”. Schroepfer said: “As soon as the information commissioner asked us to stand down, we said of course your investigation takes precedence.” The company also unveiled plans to label political ads, and who has paid for them, before May 2019.
