The British Parliament has seized internal documents from Facebook. Damian Collins, the chairman of a British parliamentary committee that researches privacy, speaks of an “extraordinary step”.
The documents would include erudition about Facebook’s privacy decisions, reports The Guardian. Among the files, there would also be e-mails between top people, including director Mark Zuckerberg.
Collins MEP used a strange power to request documents from an American entrepreneur on a business trip to London. He had the documents in his possession because of a lawsuit between his company and Facebook.
The man was visited by a bailiff in his hotel room, with the order to hand over the documents. When the entrepreneur refused, he was reportedly taken to the British Parliament. There he told them that he would get fines and possibly a prison sentence if he did not hand over the documents.
The British parliament has asked Zuckerberg several times to testify. The country is also the initiator of an international privacy commission that wants to hear Facebook. The Facebook founder also refused to give the request of this committee.
Facebook came under attack early this year after the revelations surrounding the Cambridge Analytica data company. This company managed to acquire personal information from Facebook users, who were then used for political advertising in the United States.
In October, Facebook was fined 500,000 pounds for negligence regarding the protection of personal data from Facebook users. The company wants to challenge the fine.