,
20 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
Super disappointed by responses to settlement tonight. Yes, I fully understand this is why it was shared with press on a Friday night. First, I don’t see how any press should be pointing out they first reported on a settlement five months early. IMHO. That was being played. /1
I’m more bothered by all the Democrats screaming about a weak FTC despite almost all of them failing to ask the tough questions of Facebook’s COO and CEO when they had them under oath. They never even tried to understand the Cambridge Analytica scandal like Canada and UK did. /2
And the US press needs to keep the basic facts of the case straight which many haven’t. I’ve run into so many reporters who pretend to know all about the case but they don’t. @TonyRomm, this isn’t even accurate. Cambridge Analytica didn’t develop a quiz app. /3 
Here are some basic established facts that need to be in any reporting on the Cambridge Analytica settlement. Ready? /4
First, a company called GSR built a quiz app to harvest personal data off Facebook. GSR sold this personal data to Cambridge Analytica and Facebook knew about it no later than Dec 9 2015 when a Guardian reporter called them. There reports to be evidence they knew before then. /5
So this paragraph isn’t accurate. Plus UK regulators already established the data was then used by Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 Presidential election. There were ad campaigns referencing it, Cambridge Analytica was in Trump HQ working alongside Facebook employees. /6
So second, yes all reporting should mention the data was then used in the election and Cambridge Analytica turned around and cooperated with a campaign spending 9 figures on advertising with Facebook. That’s highly relevant. /7
Third, all reporting should mention co-founder of GSR, Joseph Chancellor, who signed commercial deal to sell the data to Cambridge Analytica, was hired by Facebook right before first reports in Dec 2015. FB hid him away for years, he’s never testified and he’s now lawyered up. /8
It’s literally insane Chancellor never had to testify. His co-founder Kogan only testified a single time and it was a disgrace as most questions avoided any actual investigating and instead asked him for his irrelevant opinions on privacy rules. It was a missed opportunity. /9
NOT A SINGLE MEMBER of Congress asked Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg about Joseph Chancellor under oath. Not a single reporter who brags about having access at the top of FB asked publicly about him. Too many cozy reporters didn’t try to even understand it. /10
Meanwhile, Facebook statements and testimony lied about how quickly they reacted when they learned about Cambridge Analytica. They also misled if not lied by stating they had legal certification that the illegally transferred data was deleted. /11
At best, FB found out on 12/9/15 about the data being sold to Cambridge Analytica and 15 months later got a legally useless signed document from Cambridge Analytica that clearly states its legally useless and isn’t even signed correctly. /12
They also received a signed agreement from GSR’s Kogan on 6/24/15 that was more Facebook covering up its mess by NDA than agreement to delete data. It was signed day after Brexit when I suspect they were freaking out their data could have played a part. /13
And then importantly, Facebook’s ceo has blatantly avoided answering when he first knew about Cambridge Analytica. Pure obstruction in his answers. There are now emails / testimony suggesting employees in CA knew prior to the reporting on 12/11/15. This is a huge deal. /14
If FB CEO knew prior to 12/11/15 then he lied to Congress. Additionally then we wonder whether Zuckerberg’s mentor on his board was aware of scandal prior to reporting. We care because he dumped $160mm and 75% of his stock only weeks earlier. We deserve answers. /15
US public needs to understand there is a reason other governments sent a subpoena to Mark Zuckerberg. He can’t even visit Canada or UK without answering questions. They’re looking to us to see whether we’re going to allow one of our tech darlings roll over our institutions. /16
I appreciate this case was complex but almost all of the facts of the case came from Dec 2015 report by Davies at Guardian, March 2018 NYT/Guardian joint report, ICO and then UK/Canadian Parliament hearings and a few whistleblowers. DC’s AG is our remaining hope. /17
one typo: /13 should say: They also received a signed agreement from GSR’s Kogan on ***6/24/16*** that was more Facebook covering up its mess by NDA than agreement to delete data. Facebook said it was signed the results day after Brexit vote which was always curious timing.
probably better I send anyone in this thread over to this one where I posted many of the covered-up information by Facebook related to the scandal. So many other threads. Twitter is a mess, anyway facts 🍎 and context are important.
But... we also can’t be playing Monday morning quarterback when there is a bipartisan need to continue to press for facts. The leadership and people involved did not get proper scrutiny yet. This isn’t over.
