Facebook faces class action over targeted ads for EU referendum

A CAMPAIGN group is preparing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Facebook members whose data was used without their consent to create targeted political adverts ahead of the European Union referendum.

Fair Vote UK has alleged that Facebook violated the Data Protection Act when it allowed Vote Leave and Leave.eu to target voters on its website and app.

“In light of the Electoral Commission’s findings on Vote Leave, Beleave, and Veterans for Britain, it is more clear than ever that we need a fair vote and necessary electoral reforms for a guarantee on free and fair elections in the future,” a Fair Vote spokesman said.

The campaign group said 1.1m people had their data harvested for the campaign.

As a result, Facebook could face damages “in the billions of pounds”, it said. The lawsuit follows calls from MPS to place levies on tech giants like Facebook to help stem the flood of “fake news that threatens our democracy”.

A digital, culture, media and sport committee report, which was leaked on Friday, called for urgent action against the likes of Facebook and Google, including further taxes and greater liability.

Damian Collins, who chairs the committee, urged the Government to change the law so that social media giants will become liable for the content posted online, possibly opening them up to lawsuits from members of the general public who have been targeted by hate speech. It is the latest in a number of recent publicity issues the social network will be hoping to bat off.

Facebook suffered the single biggest one-day loss of value for any company in US market history after publishing its earnings last Thursday.

Despite revenue growth, investors balked when it failed to hit analyst targets and admitted that its active users had dropped in Europe and plateaued in the US and Canada.

It blamed this on the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation, which granted greater transparency over how personal data was used.

However, many wondered whether the impact of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook’s fake news controversies were finally turning users away. Boss Mark Zuckerberg now faces pressure to abandon his role after $199bn (£151bn) was stripped from its value within hours of revealing its finances.