Confidential Facebook documents seized by the UK parliament could be published this week as members of parliament continue to ramp up pressure on the technology company’s executives following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Damian Collins, chair of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee, told the Financial Times that “very important and very relevant” documents had been obtained from the founder of Six4Three, a US app developer, who was on a business trip in London last week.
Mr Collins issued an order to compel the businessman, Ted Kramer, to hand over the documents and the serjeant at arms — an officer responsible for security at Westminster — was sent to his hotel to ensure he complied. The app developer was in possession of internal Facebook documents, some from senior executives, regarding its data policies.
The method by which the documents, which date to between 2013 and 2014, were seized was first reported by The Observer. Mr Collins said it was “unusual” but not unprecedented to dispatch a serjeant at arms alongside the order.
The showdown is an unusual deployment for the serjeant at arms, whose job includes a daily parliamentary procession carrying a silver-gilt mace. The House of Commons did not immediately respond to a query about the last time the official had been involved in enforcing the law outside the parliamentary estate.
It reflects how high the stakes have become as governments around the world battle to obtain answers from Facebook’s executives about fake news and disinformation on its platform. “The process of getting information out of Facebook has been painful,” said Mr Collins.
The MP said he had already reviewed the documents but would not comment on their contents.
The stand-off between parliament and Facebook comes one month after the social network appointed Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister, as head of global affairs and communications.
It also comes as Six4Three compiles evidence against Facebook in preparation for litigation. The documents have been sealed by a judge in California so cannot be released and any attempt to do so would be deemed to be in contempt of court.
Mr Collins said, however, that his committee, which will meet on Tuesday, has the power to publish the documents under parliamentary privilege if it chooses to do so.
The Six4Three case has little to do with the subject of fake news but could shed light on Facebook’s policies at the time that the data of tens of millions of Facebook users was accessed and then used by Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook changed its data policies in relation to third-party developers in 2015. That move stopped Six4Three from launching its “Pikinis” app that filtered the photos of Facebook users’ friends to find pictures of them in swimwear. About 4,500 people had signed up for a trial of the app which was never formally launched as a result of Facebook’s decision to restrict third-party access to data. Facebook is contesting the case.
Richard Allan, Facebook’s vice-president of policy solutions, wrote to Mr Collins on Sunday. “The court that sealed the documents is due to consider these latest developments as early as tomorrow. It will be helpful for all of us to see Six4Three’s explanation and any directions given by the judge in this case as we consider their legal status,” he said in a letter seen by the Financial Times.
The seizure of the files comes ahead of a much-anticipated “international grand committee” hearing next week in which members of parliament from Brazil, Singapore, Latvia, Canada, Argentina, Australia and Ireland will travel to the UK to question Lord Allan about fake news and disinformation.
“Canada will legislate,” Bob Zimmer, chair of the Commons standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics in Canada told the FT on Saturday. “What we’re really trying to get a handle on is where we go from here on privacy and fake news.”
The committee has repeatedly called for chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to give evidence in person or over video link, reiterating the request after a New York Times investigation alleged the company had mishandled its probe into Russian manipulation on the platform. “It’d be great to hear from Mark Zuckerberg that there are solutions but for now we have no confidence,” said Mr Zimmer.
