Sergeant-at-arms sent to get sealed Facebook f iles for probe by MPs
POTENTIALLY sensation documents that had been kept sealed have been dramatically obtained by British MPs investigating the highly criticised social media site.
While the internet giant fought to keep the files sealed, it has been reported that they were released after a House of Commons sergeant-at-arms was sent to at a US businessman’s hotel.
The company chief, Ted Kramer, was then taken to the parliament and ordered to produce the documents.
It is believed they include:
Correspondences between Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and company executives;
Claims about the firm’s alleged disregard for user privacy;
And a claim that Zuckerberg devised a scheme that forced Facebook’s rivals, or potential rivals, out of business.
The documents stem from a court case in California that outlines a litany of allegations against Facebook.
Mr Kramer, the owner of Six4Three, the company suing Facebook, told CNN news in an interview this summer: ‘We allege that Facebook itself is the biggest violator of data misuse in the history of the software industry,’
He wants the US Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general across the United States to investigate the allegations Six4Three is making.
However, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN, over the weekend, that Six4Three’s case is without merit.
The internal documents were obtained by Mr Kramer’s lawyers through discovery, the legal process whereby one party to a court case can obtain evidence from the other.
But the San Mateo Superior Court in California ordered that the documents remain under seal, meaning they should not be made public by Six4Three.
However, last Monday, British MP Damian Collins, who is the head of the parliamentary committee that has been looking into Facebook, wrote to Mr Kramer, asking for the documents.
Mr Kramer was apparently in London for work and the letter was sent to the London hotel where he was staying, court documents reviewed by CNN show.
Facebook contacted the court in California when it learned of Mr Collins’ request and the judge ordered that no unredacted copies of the documents should be released until further notice, and that ‘failure to comply will be considered an act of contempt’.
A Facebook statement said the material obtained by the committee is subject to a protective court order restricting its disclosure.
The Observer newspaper in London reported the documents were seized after Mr Kramer was escorted to parliament when the sergeant-at-arms appeared at his hotel room. The company chief was apparently told he risked fines and possible imprisonment if he didn’t hand them over. A Facebook spokeswoman said yesterday: ‘Six4Three’s claims are entirely meritless – Facebook has never traded Facebook data for anything and we’ve always made clear that developer access is subject to both our policies and what info people choose to share.
‘We operate in a fiercely competitive market in which people connect and share. For every service offered on Facebook and our family of apps, you can find at least three or four competing services with hundreds of millions, if not billions, of users.’
‘Biggest violater of data misuse’