Facebook sparks row by cutting off researchers
Issued on:
05/08/2021 - 02:20
Facebook cited privacy concerns in cutting off a research project on political misinformation, but critics said the move goes against transparency OLIVIER DOULIERY AFP/File
2 min
Washington (AFP)
Facebook has cut off some academic researchers for "scraping" data from the platform, sparking a fresh controversy about the leading social network's transparency to outside experts studying misinformation and abusive content.
The California tech giant acted late Tuesday to block the research from New York University's Ad Observatory Project, citing privacy concerns.
Facebook product management director Mike Clark said the accounts from the project were disabled "to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people's privacy in line with our privacy program."