Thread by @shady_inf0

The 1st sub committee meeting on Disinformation was held today with @CommonsCMS asking questions to @ICOnews about investigations it is holding following the inquiry into fake news & Gov's online harm measures
The full 1 hour 10 minutes can be found below.
parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/48…

@CommonsCMS @ICOnews Damian Collins asks about targeted adverts by 'shady' groups like Mainstream Network.

ICO chief Liz Denham tells us they've known about Mainstream Network since Nov 18 and served notices on @facebook to investigate Mainstream Network, their financing & other similar groups.

Here's Liz Denham at a committee hearing in Nov 18 saying they were looking at Mainstream Network & whether they'd contravened GDPR via @brexit_sham

https://twitter.com/brexit_sham/status/1060050887526244352?s=20

James Dipple-Johnstone (ICO Deputy) says they served 2 notices on @facebook to understand how many ads, how they were placed, how they were targeted, who had access to the account associated with Mainstream Network. It's an ongoing investigation & revealed more lines of enquiry.

James mentioned 89up at the end of the video, here's their report into Mainstream Network's ‘dark ads’ campaign on facebook to pressurise MPs to 'Chuck Chequers'
89up.org/news/89up-reve…

He tells the committee that 1,000 adverts were of interest and about 1Million clicks linked to Mainstream Network profile. They also identified individuals associated with the admin & payment of the facebook ads.
Liz Denham said it would allow email address harvesting.

This was uncovered to be Lynton Crosby employees and Boris Johnson's former political adviser, who also has links to Tim Dawson's Britain's Future. Others mentioned Reuben Solomon & Vote Leave's Theodora Dickinson of We Are The 52% campaign - @jimwaterson

https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/1113460776923271171?s=20

Secretive hard-Brexit Facebook campaign got 1Million responses.

'A million Britons responded to a secretive Facebook campaign for a hard Brexit overseen by Lynton Crosby’s company'

via @jimwaterson. Great timing Jim 😉
theguardian.com/politics/2019/…

@jimwaterson Damian Collins asks if the @ICOnews are looking at 'We Are The 52%' / Britain's Future to see if connected to 'Mainstream Network.'

They are looking at a wide range of campaign groups on BOTH sides of opinion in the referendum campaign.

Ian Lucas asks if #AIQ data has been deleted after the ICO issued a notice.
Liz Denham says there is a pause on the deletion of data, as they have to wait for the Canadian Authorities to finish their report, but there is commitment from AIQ to delete it.

Ian Lucas - Did you find datasets from 1 org being used by #AIQ on b/h of another org to spread info via facebook (No) Would ie; Vote Leave use their own dataset? (yes) but if used from another? like the DUP could that be a breach?

James DJ - potentially depending on the dataset

'Were Mainstream Network using data gathered through their campaigns & would it be a breach of GDPR?'
'Yes without the data being consented. Some ads had no information in them, as to what happens with your data, whether it was shared or used elsewhere or used overseas.

"Can facebook see that there are others involved. ie; We Are The 52% being financed by someone who doesn't appear to have the funds?"

"They can supply who set it up, who has admin rights, payments for the ads on pages, the log in details & basics like clicks, interactions."

Jo Stevens asks about transparency & political advertising that wasn't included in the White paper about online harms from UK Gov

Liz Denham says she was surprised & disappointed that there wasn't more focus on the huge societal harm around electoral interference.

Damian Collins asks about @profcarroll's court case against Cambridge Analytica as to what happens to a data request when a company has gone into administration.

'We're analysing info from them, but we'd be able to explain the narrative rather than an individuals case'

@profcarroll "We hope to have a report out in Autumn, we're coming to the last few servers seized off #CambridgeAnalytica" - ICO

https://twitter.com/shady_inf0/status/1120704176911265793?s=20

@profcarroll Do we have to go a lot further than facebook's new self imposed requirements around political ads?

They have put in place more rigour than the past, but they are piecemeal, ad hoc & could change tomorrow.

Have we made progress in the time it takes to investigate & conclude any abuse of political activity either off or online?

We know more now than we did 2 years ago about harms & the problem with regulation is it's reactive, after the fact. We need clear standards in statute.

Is there evidence that the impact of this dodgy activity works?

When tools get more sophisticated, they're going to work. We don't have that evidence that people were going to vote a certain way. Digital campaigning is going to continue & more money will be spent on campaigns.

You raised concerns about data rights for children? how do you propose to take this forward?

Gov' said there needs to be rules in place for kids. For the 1st time, children, in law need to be treated differently than adults. Our 'Children's Code' assists in protecting them.

Games companies collect lots of data, something you've looked at previously?
No, but we've a No of investigations underway looking at apps targeted at kids.
A lot of Co's are overseas, important to speak to these people?
Yes, we have the territorial reach to require a response.