Unlike in US, Facebook Faces Tough Questions in Britain

In London, Facebook’s chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, faced more than four hours of questions from a British parliamentary committee over the company’s data-collection techniques, oversight of app developers, fake accounts, political advertising and links to the voter-targeting firm Cambridge Analytica. If American politicians have been lampooned for being Luddites, the British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has built a reputation for thoroughness and detailed questioning. Damian Collins, the committee’s chairman, had more than 11 pages of questions for Schroepfer, including how facial recognition technology is used and the methods Facebook uses to track people even when they are not on the site. One of the most heated exchanges came between Julian Knight and Schroepfer. The Conservative minister said Facebook was a "morality-free zone," destructive to privacy, and not an innocent party that was wronged by Cambridge Analytica. "Your company is the problem," he said.