Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, on Thursday said Facebook’s recent decision to suspend the accounts of New York University researchers looking into political ads on the site was based on a “cynical pretext” and done purely to stop them from “poking around.”
Hill.TV’s “Rising” host Kim Iversen asked Stoller what he thought of comparisons that have been made between the NYU researchers and the actions carried out by defunct consulting firm Cambridge Analytica that collected user data without consent for the purposes of political advertising.
Stoller stated that the NYU researchers were not the same as Cambridge Analytica, as the consulting firm had used deception to take information for purposes other than what it had said, while the researchers were very clear on their goals and were asking permission for information.
“And Facebook is saying, ‘No, no. we can’t allow you because we have signed this consent decree with the federal trade commission that says that we have to protect user privacy.’ It’s … just a cynical pretext because Facebook just doesn’t want them poking around in how they actually run their business,” Stoller said.
Stoller opined that the NYU researchers were essentially conducting “third-party auditing of a system that has no auditors.”
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