On Monday evening 2 July, the committees for civil liberties (LIBE), industry (ITRE), constitutional affairs (AFCO) and legal affairs (JURI) in Parliament proceeded to their final joint hearing on the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ affair.
How can these kind of scandals be avoided in the future? This is the thorny question that MEPs put to Facebook and the three European Commissioners attending.
Once again, Facebook did not send the individuals required to appear (see EUROPE 12047). This time, the director of operations, Sheryl Sandberg, was replaced by Lord Richard Allan, the Vice President for the group's public policies and who has already attended the previous hearing (see EUROPE 12049).
The contribution made by Mr Allan did not, all in all, provide anything new to the discussion. He explained, “As some MEPs pointed out in previous hearings. There is a frustration that we came here to apologise for mistakes but it is the case. The services we are developing are genuinely innovative and that does mean we come across new challenges”.
EU's regulatory approach - all options remain open
The MEPs, however, also demanded explanations from the following Commissioners: Věra Jourová (justice), Andrus Ansip (single digital market) and Julian King (security).
Julian King provided assurances that “We want the platforms to engage”. Neither did he miss an opportunity to warn that “We’ve said that we want to go forward on a voluntary basis – as much as we can - but we reserve the right however to consider all options again if we are not making sufficient progress”.
According to Mr King, they also needed to make progress with the debate on a clear rule for using and selling personal data in the context of the elections or at least introduce transparent rules on these kinds of arrangements. In this connection he proposed that platforms like Facebook should undertake research that was independent from the national authorities on the problem of online manipulation.
Commissioner Jourová stated that “If I tell you that the GDPR will guarantee 100% that the situation will not repeat, I would be lying. (…) It can happen but I’m sure that GDPR works as a very strong deterrence effect, there are very high sanctions (...) I believe GDPR will be and is a strong response”.
The next stage. After these three hearings had in turn allowed contributions to be made by whistleblowers, Facebook representatives, experts, regulators European Commissioners and MEPs will now assess whether the responses provided are satisfactory.
Josef Weidenholzer (S&D, Austria) pointed out that “It was not just about talking. There will be a clear and definite position of Parliament”.
In a press release at the end of the meeting, the chairperson of the LIBE committee Claude Moraes (S&D, United Kingdom) asserted“My impression is that much needs to be done, particularly by commercial organisations, to ensure that their business model is by design and by default compliant with fundamental rights”.
The MEPs are, in any case, waiting for the ongoing investigations to be finished so that measures can be taken to ensure respect of the law and the fundamental rights of European citizens.
In the meantime, Facebook acknowledged on Monday that it had mistakenly unblocked undesirable contacts blocked by users, for several days, a problem that affected 800,000 users. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)