Giant social media company Facebook Inc. (FB) is being pushed by lawmakers to give answers to why it disbanded accounts of researchers conducting studies on political ads on its various social media platforms.
The leading social network said it had brought down some personal accounts and access to a group of New York University researchers due to arising concerns about privacy of other users’ data on its platform.
Through a letter addressed to the company’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, Senators Mark Warner, Chris Coons and Amy Klobuchar are pressing for answers from Zuckerberg including how many researchers and journalists had their accounts disbanded and what is the company doing to change its terms of service to better accommodate such studies.
According to the letter, the lawmakers are asking Facebook to explain how the study by researchers from New York University would affect users’ privacy since Facebook said the research violated rules to protect the privacy of other users of its platform.
The lawmakers gave Facebook until August 20 to provide answers on the multiple questions asked on the letter further asking the company if it intends to restore the Ad Observatory researchers’ access.
