Facebook is morality-free zone: British MP

London, April 27: Facebook is a “morality-free zone” that bullies journalists and threatens academics, said a British MP, while probing a data breach controversy, the media reported. Conservative MP Julian Knight was grilling Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer on Thursday over the Cambridge Analytica (CA) breach on Thursday, when he said this. Schroepfer was facing the British government inquiry over CA’s data-mining scandal and the impact of fake news on the Brexit referendum.

Facebook’s reaction to the data scandal suggested a “pattern of behaviour” that included “bullying...threatening... and potentially impeding probe by lawful authorities”, the Guardian quoted Knight as saying. Knight said the social network had tried to evade responsibility for the impact it was having on society.

Appearing before the US Congress earlier in April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the lawmakers that his own personal data was part of the 87 million users’ that was “improperly shared” with the British political consultancy firm. Schroepfer replying to Knight on Thursday said that he would “respectfully disagree” with the latter’s assessment. “You want us to say we’re responsible, which we have on multiple occasions,” Schroepfer added. (IANS)