As previously announced (see EUROPE 11987), the European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, has sent a message to the operational director of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, requesting information about the way in which the personal data of millions of users has been used by the Cambridge Analytica company.
According to the AFP, the Commission has given Facebook two weeks to provide its answers and to indicate to what extent the personal data of Europeans has been affected, including the measures the social network intends to take.
The apology by Mark Zuckerberg last week has visibly failed to dissipate European fears and things appear to be going from bad to worse for the US social network giant, which is now accused of having been involved in the referendum on the United Kingdom leaving the EU.
The whistleblower behind these revelations, Christopher Wylie, asserted in an interview granted to several European newspapers that the Cambridge Analytica company had played a “crucial role” in the vote in favour of Brexit.
The Greens/EFA immediately responded by calling for a hearing of those responsible at the European Parliament, “in order to examine the impact of the massive use of data on the Brexit vote and European democracy".
On 12 April next, the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, and the Presidents of the political groups explained in a press release that they will meet up to decide what measures to take. Several options are envisaged, such as inviting Mark Zuckerberg and other representatives from the online companies to attend a plenary session where they will be questioned by MEPs, as requested by Mr Tajani (see EUROPE 11984).
MEPs could also possibly adopt a resolution calling on the European Commission to propose measures to tackle irregularities or select a temporary committee to examine the allegations and possible measures to take. In addition to the scandal itself, several figures are now looking at what lessons Europe should learn from the affair. In a column published on Monday in the L’Opinion newspaper, the president of the EPP group, Manfred Weber, launched an appeal, “this staggering affair ought to be a warning to we Europeans about the challenges of the digital era to our democracies and encourage us to draw the conclusions from it”. The Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, emphasised during a press conference that the Commission had already tackled the problem head-on and, in this regard, referred to the entry into force of the general regulation on data protection last May and the future proposals on fake news and online misinformation.
Manfred Weber believes that the time is running out and the EU must, “prevent, at any cost, the European elections being threatened by destabilisation attempts by those seeking to underline Europe". (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)