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UK Parliament Seizes Cache of Facebook Internal Papers (theguardian.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the friend-requests dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader infolation writes: The UK Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant to account after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to answer MPs' questions. The documents are alleged to contain revelations on data and privacy controls that led to Cambridge Analytica scandal. Damian Collins, the chair of the culture, media and sport select committee, invoked a rare parliamentary mechanism to compel the founder of a US software company, Six4Three, to hand over the documents during a business trip to London.
Sunday Facebook's head of public policy told Parliament their actions were "entirely without merit," adding that they believed the move was "more about attacking our company than it is about a credible legal claim."

8 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Bring on the whinging by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Every time a non-US government takes action against a predatory nominally US-based firm, dozens of "patriots" come out of the woodwork to decry how unfairly the foreigners are treating the nice US tech companies.

    I don't know if these people are actually so deluded that they think Facebook holds any allegiance towards the USA (a company in which they pay virtually no tax, nor have any meaningful investment), if they are shills paid by FB, or if they are just bots meant to sow discord within the Western. But brace yourselves; here they come...

    1. Re:Bring on the whinging by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1, Informative

      Facebook's income taxes. In 2017 they paid about $5 billion in income taxes, and $4.6 billion of those were in the US. Their revenue and net profit for 2017 was $40 billion and $16 billion, respectively. So they paid about a 24% income tax rate ($5 billion of $21 billion, giving a net $16 billion). That's higher than the average of the EU at ~19%, and hs quite a way from "virtually no tax".

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    2. Re: Bring on the whinging by _merlin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Have you scrolled up a bit and read the comments suggesting bombing the UK over this?

  2. Re:Per the Daily Mail... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    Actually it is all UK media:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46334810

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/24/mps-seize-cache-facebook-internal-papers

    and the rest, with the Guardian leading the story

  3. Re:This justifies the Revolutionary War by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Informative

    Point of order:

    The post you replied to was making a point about why the American Revolution was needed - because it supposedly prevents acts like this.

    The problem with the grandparents point however is that this act can very easily fall within the bounds of the constitutional quote they highlight - the serjeant-at-arms was issued an order of seizure by a parliamentary committee, naming the class of documents or information and the individual required to disclose those items. It is, to all intent and purpose, a warrant issued by a proper authority under the UK parliamentary system, just as an equivalent order issued by a House or Senate committee would be.

  4. Despotic actions of a desperate regime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    It's funny that you think that free speech undermines democracy, but robbing a business traveler is a good thing?

    It's funny because you don't realize that the memes didn't convince anyone of anything. We're instead convinced by your despotic actions in response to silly pictures online that you should by no means be permitted to retain any hold on the power of the state.

    Robbing a business traveler under color of law is exactly why we've come to permanently mistrust you and your media allies.

  5. Re:This justifies the Revolutionary War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    How ignorant are you?

    Ignorant enough to think that that bolded shit from the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply in the UK?

  6. Re:Per the Daily Mail... by BoogieChile · · Score: 5, Informative

    One of the things that help the Daily Mail earn the bottom-of-the-barrel reputation they have is the way they steal anything that could pass for "real" journalism from other publications.

    The article you posted, for example, is cribbed entirely from the BBC and Guardian.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/busin...
    https://www.theguardian.com/te...