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Senators call for Facebook hearing amid election "integrity" concerns
Senators Amy Klobuchar and John Kennedy have issued a joint call to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley to hold a hearing with the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter.
The news follows Friday's ban of data firm Cambridge Analytica from Facebook after a whistleblower accused them of harvesting personal information from over 50m American Facebook users in order to pass it on to parties associated with the Trump presidential election campaign.
Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica, accused Facebook of having had knowledge of the data breach "privately for two years".
A joint statement from Minnesota Democrat Klobuchar and Louisiana Republican Kennedy said: "Facebook, Google and Twitter have amassed unprecedented amounts of personal data and use this data when selling advertising, including political advertisements. The lack of oversight on how data is stored and how political advertisements are sold raises concerns about the integrity of American elections as well as privacy rights."
Facebook in particular is facing pressure from multiple corners as European parliament president Antonio Tajani said "allegations of misuse of Facebook user data is an unacceptable violation of our citizens' privacy rights," and UK MPs have called for an end to the "wild west" of technology firms.
Damian Collins MP, chair of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee, said: "We need to hear from people who can speak about Facebook from a position of authority that requires them to know the truth. Someone has to take responsibility for this. It's time for Mark Zuckerberg to stop hiding behind his Facebook page."
Facebook representatives and Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix last month denied that Cambridge had access to private Facebook data, but the social media giant backtracked on Friday, admitting that it had known since 2015 that the company had accessed profile data.
"We are in the process of conducting a comprehensive internal and external review as we work to determine the accuracy of the claims that the Facebook data in question still exists," Facebook said in a statement.
As of 1539 GMT, Facebook Inc's shares were down 6.42% at $173.20.