[h=2]Secret Facebook emails by Mark Zuckerberg over data-sharing scandal are seized by Parliament's Serjeant-at-Arms and could now be released by MPs despite US court ordering them to remain private[/h]
Parliament has seized hold of private documents from the social media giant
Files said to contain decisions made before the Cambridge Analytica Scandal
Damian Collins demanded US software company Six4Three hand in documents
Parliament has exerted rarely-used powers to seize private documents from Facebook which the social media giant had refused to make public for months. The papers are believed to include e-mails between Mark Zuckerberg and senior Facebook executives that reveal they knew about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. They were confiscated by Parliament's serjeant-at-arms Kamal El-Hajji from Ted Kramer, founder of the US company Six4Three, which is currently in the midst of suing Facebook. It is claimed the documents show that Facebook not only knew the flaws in its privacy policy, but actively exploited them to make money. They are believed to show the firm intentionally created and effectively drew attention the loophole later used by Cambridge Analytica to collect the data of millions of users.
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Parliament has exerted its legal powers to get hold of private Facebook documents following Mark Zuckerberg's repeated refusal to answer MP's questions
Mr Kramer had the documents in his possession because a US judge ruled Facebook had to share them with him and his lawyers - but no one else was to see them. However, Damian Collins, chairman of the culture committee, found out about the documents and sent the serjeant-at-arms to Mr Kramer's London hotel to seize them. When Kramer did not co-operate with the orders the software firm founder was escorted to Parliament and told to hand in the documents or face jail.
The serjeant-at-arms, a post dating back to 1415, is a parliamentary official responsible for keeping order within the Commons. The legal move comes less than a year after the company fell into turmoil for harvesting data from 87million US users without their knowledge. It is more bad news for Zuckerberg, who last week refused to stand down after his company were found to be using lobbyists to smear critics by calling them anti-semitic and linking them to George Soros.
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A member of staff from the office of Serjeant at Arms Kamal El-Hajji was dispatched to the hotel of Ted Kramer and demand he hand over the documents
The US software company alleges that Facebook aware of the loopholes in its privacy policy and exploited them. On Friday night, Stuart Gross, a lawyer for Six4Three, confirmed to news group CNN that the British committee had obtained the sealed documents. Mr Collins told The Guardian: 'We are in uncharted territory. 'This is an unprecedented move but it's an unprecedented situation. We've failed to get answers from and we believe the documents contain information of very high public interest.' Six4Three are the makers of the controversial app Pinkini, that allowed users to find pictures of friends wearing bikinis online.
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Last Monday, Damian Collins, chair of the culture, media and sport select committee, demanded US software company Six4Three hand in documents during a business trip in London
In 2015, Facebook changed its policies on how information was shared and this meant developers of the app were restricted in accessing data and culminated in the loss of business for Pinkini. It was at this point the software company began their yearlong bitter feud with US social media giant. The company claims Facebook misled developers by encouraging them to build applications based around promised access to data controls and privacy settings. Zuckerberg had allegedly sold expensive ads to developers under the guise that they would have long-term access to users' personal information. It happened when Facebook shifted its advertising business' focus from desktops to smartphones, the lawsuit claimed. The recent move by Parliament comes amid the ongoing scrutiny that Facebook has fallen under regarding private data. Since it was exposed by the Observer in March, the American company has lost more than $100billion in value. The documents are believed to include decisions that senior executives made at the company in the years before the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
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Tweets by Mr Collins show his ongoing battle with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his company handling of data
