{"id":859,"date":"2018-05-24T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T07:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=859"},"modified":"2018-05-25T09:57:47","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T07:57:47","slug":"zuckerberg-set-up-fraudulent-scheme-to-weaponise-data-court-case-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=859","title":{"rendered":"Zuckerberg set up fraudulent scheme to &#8216;weaponise&#8217; data, court case alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Zuckerberg\u00a0faces allegations that he developed a \u201cmalicious and fraudulent scheme\u201d to exploit vast amounts of private data to earn Facebook billions and force rivals out of business.<\/p>\n<p>A company suing Facebook in a California court claims the social network\u2019s chief executive \u201cweaponised\u201d the ability to access data from any user\u2019s network of friends \u2013 the feature at the heart of the\u00a0Cambridge Analytica\u00a0scandal.<\/p>\n<p>A legal motion filed last week in the superior court of San Mateo draws upon extensive confidential emails and messages between\u00a0Facebook\u00a0senior executives including Mark Zuckerberg. He is named individually in the case and, it is claimed, had personal oversight of the scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook rejects all claims, and has made a motion to have the case dismissed using a free speech defence.<\/p>\n<p>It claims the first amendment protects its right to make \u201ceditorial decisions\u201d as it sees fit. Zuckerberg and other senior executives have asserted that Facebook is a platform not a publisher, most recently in testimony to Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Heather Whitney, a legal scholar who has written about social media companies for the\u00a0Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said, in her opinion, this exposed a potential tension for Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFacebook\u2019s claims in court that it is an editor for first amendment purposes and thus free to censor and alter the content available on its site is in tension with their, especially recent, claims before the public and US Congress to be neutral platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company that has filed the case, a former startup called Six4Three, is now trying to stop Facebook from having the case thrown out and has submitted legal arguments that draw on thousands of emails, the details of which are currently redacted. Facebook has until next Tuesday to file a motion requesting that the evidence remains sealed, otherwise the documents will be made public.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-1 | 1\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-news--item rich-link--pillar-news\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more-text\">The developer alleges the correspondence shows Facebook paid lip service to privacy concerns in public but behind the scenes exploited its users\u2019 private information.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It claims internal emails and messages reveal a cynical and abusive system set up to exploit access to users\u2019 private information, alongside a raft of anti-competitive behaviours.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook said the claims had no merit and the company would \u201ccontinue to defend ourselves vigorously\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Six4Three lodged its original case in 2015 shortly after Facebook removed developers\u2019 access to friends\u2019 data. The company said it had invested $250,000 in developing an app called Pikinis that filtered users\u2019 friends photos\u00a0to find any of them in swimwear. Its launch\u00a0was met with controversy.<\/p>\n<p>The papers submitted to the court last week allege Facebook was not only aware of the implications of its privacy policy, but actively exploited them, intentionally creating and effectively flagging up the loophole that Cambridge Analytica used to collect data on up to 87 million American users.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also claims Zuckerberg misled the public and Congress about Facebook\u2019s role in the\u00a0Cambridge Analytica scandal\u00a0by portraying it as a victim of a third party that had abused its rules for collecting and sharing data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe evidence uncovered by plaintiff demonstrates that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was not the result of mere negligence on Facebook\u2019s part but was rather the direct consequence of the malicious and fraudulent scheme Zuckerberg designed in 2012 to cover up his failure to anticipate the world\u2019s transition to smartphones,\u201d legal documents said.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit claims to have uncovered fresh evidence concerning how Facebook made decisions about users\u2019 privacy. It sets out allegations that, in 2012, Facebook\u2019s advertising business, which focused on desktop ads, was devastated by a rapid and unexpected shift to smartphones.<\/p>\n<p>Zuckerberg responded by forcing developers to buy expensive ads on the new, underused mobile service or risk having their access to data at the core of their business cut off, the court case alleges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZuckerberg weaponised the data of one-third of the planet\u2019s population in order to cover up his failure to transition Facebook\u2019s business from desktop computers to mobile ads before the market became aware that Facebook\u2019s financial projections in its 2012 IPO filings were false,\u201d one court filing said.<\/p>\n<p>In its latest filing, Six4Three alleges Facebook deliberately used its huge amounts of valuable and highly personal user data to tempt developers to create platforms within its system, implying that they would have long-term access to personal information, including data from subscribers\u2019 Facebook friends.<\/p>\n<p>Once their businesses were running, and reliant on data relating to \u201clikes\u201d, birthdays, friend lists and other Facebook minutiae, the social media company could and did target any that became too successful, looking to extract money from them, co-opt them or destroy them, the documents claim.<\/p>\n<p>Six4Three alleges up to 40,000 companies were effectively defrauded in this way by Facebook. It also alleges that senior executives including Zuckerberg personally devised and managed the scheme, individually deciding which companies would be cut off from data or allowed preferential access.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit alleges that Facebook initially focused on kickstarting its mobile advertising platform, as the rapid adoption of smartphones decimated the desktop advertising business in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>It later used its ability to cut off data to force rivals out of business, or coerce owners of apps Facebook coveted into selling at below the market price, even though they were not breaking any terms of their contracts, according to the documents.<\/p>\n<p>A Facebook spokesman said: \u201cWhen we changed our policy in 2015, we gave all third-party developers ample notice of material platform changes that could have impacted their applications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Facebook\u2019s submission to the court, an \u201canti-Slapp motion\u201d under\u00a0Californian legislation\u00a0designed to protect freedom of speech, said: \u201cSix4Three is taking its fifth shot at an ever expanding set of claims and all of its claims turn on one decision, which is absolutely protected: Facebook\u2019s editorial decision to stop publishing certain user-generated content via its Platform to third-party app developers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>David Godkin, Six4Three\u2019s lead counsel said: \u201cWe believe the public has a right to see the evidence and are confident the evidence clearly demonstrates the truth of our allegations, and much more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower who has testified to the UK parliament about its business practices, said the allegations were a \u201cbombshell\u201d. He claimed to MPs Facebook\u2019s senior executives were aware of abuses of friends\u2019 data back in 2011-12 and he was warned not to look into the issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey felt that it was better not to know. I found that utterly horrifying,\u201d he said. \u201cIf true, these allegations show a huge betrayal of users, partners and regulators. They would also show Facebook using its monopoly power to kill competition and putting profits over protecting its users.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A trial date for the case has been set for April 2019.<\/p>\n<p>source:https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2018\/may\/24\/mark-zuckerberg-set-up-fraudulent-scheme-weaponise-data-facebook-court-case-alleges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Zuckerberg\u00a0faces allegations that he developed a \u201cmalicious and fraudulent scheme\u201d to exploit vast amounts of private data to earn Facebook billions and force rivals out of business. A company suing Facebook in a California court claims the social network\u2019s chief executive \u201cweaponised\u201d the ability to access data from any user\u2019s network of friends \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}