Facebook used data as bargaining chip

Facebook Inc wielded user data like a bargaining chip, providing access when that sharing might encourage people to spend more time on the social network — and imposing strict limits on partners in cases where it saw a potential competitive threat.

A trove of internal correspondence — published online by UK lawmakers — provides a look into the ways Facebook bosses, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, treated information posted by users like a commodity that could be harnessed in service of business goals. Apps were invited to use Facebook’s network to grow, as long as that increased usage of Facebook.

Certain competitors, in a list reviewed by Zuckerberg himself, were not allowed to use Facebook’s tools and data without his personal signoff. In early 2013, Twitter Inc launched the Vine videosharing service, which drew on a Facebook tool that let Vine users connect to their Facebook friends. Alerted to the possible competitive threat by an engineer who recommended cutting off Vine’s access to Facebook data, Zuckerberg replied succinctly: “Yup, go for it.”

In other cases Zuckerberg talked of giving developers more access to user data in hopes it would result in apps that would encourage people to do more on Facebook.