But the committee’s inquiry has covered an extraordinary amount of terrain in its 18-month lifespan, from Russian election interference to cash-for-passport schemes, and the report is similarly comprehensive. According to the report, Facebook deliberately broke privacy and competition law, refuses to tackle abusive or misleading accounts, and is staffed by executives who deliberately obstructed or misled the committee. The report states Facebook even considered granting the dating app Tinder access to users’ data in exchange for the right to use one of its trademarks, Moments. It complains that Facebook promised answers as to who was behind the campaign, but has thus far failed to provide them. Tech firms have spent years designing their platforms to be “frictionless” and allow users to consume and publish information with ever greater ease.

Source: The Guardian February 18, 2019 00:00 UTC