Facebook Admits to Sharing Data with China, Lawmakers Rebuke Lack of Transparency

With there being a considerable level of tension between the U.S. and China, at the moment getting caught supplying the Chinese with user data is the last thing that Facebook needed. Unfortunately for the social media giant, this is exactly what happened when it revealed which companies it had provided access to its API for. The news angered lawmakers, who have rebuked Facebook for its lack of transparency.

The top lawmakers in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee from both the Republican and Democrat parties have taken issue with the fact that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg failed to disclose this particular information when he appeared before a panel in April. The biggest concern being national security matters, with some of these companies being of special interest, Reuters reports.

Included on the list that Facebook provided was Huawei, the smartphone and technology giant, which has been marked as a potential medium for Chinese espionage. In a written statement, the panel noted how these details were clearly of interest to the federal government and the public. All of it should have been provided when Zuckerberg went to Washington.

“Clearly, the company’s partnerships with Chinese technology companies and others should have been disclosed before Congress and the American people,” the panel wrote.

“We strongly encourage full transparency from Facebook and the entire tech community.”

As to why this even matters, Axios notes that it has since sent warning signals throughout the U.S. intelligence community, with agency officials already having predicted the situation long before it was revealed. The publication also notes that so far, there has been no evidence that the access that Facebook provided these companies has resulted in abuses.

Of course, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the social network’s credibility is shot. Even if the reasons and practices behind the sharing of access to data with the companies on the list were completely benign, the optics is simply not encouraging.