EU governments must end voter manipulation on social networks

In response to today's European Parliament plenary debate on Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament call for a ban on targeted and personal-profile advertising on social networks. MEPs will vote on the resolution on "The use of Facebook user's data by Cambridge Analytica and the impact on data protection" on Thursday (25 October).

Ska Keller, President of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, comments:

"Facebook must not get away with cosmetic changes to its users' privacy settings. The Cambridge Analytica scandal and the misuse of private data is a political scandal and threatens our democracy. EU governments must take responsibility for Facebook before the European elections. We must not leave political election campaigns in the hands of social networks."

Molly Scott Cato, member of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, added:

"The mass abuse of data and political interference is disrupting democracy across the world. From the UK Brexit campaign to the Trump election and now the presidential election in Brazil, Facebook, together with shady groups like Cambridge Analytica, have shown themselves to be an anti-social network threatening democracy. The European Commission's code of conduct for social networks is well-intentioned, but transparency and self-regulation alone will not get us far. EU governments must ban targeted political advertising based on personal profiles if we want to make sure our democracies are free from destructive outside influence."

More info:

• European Parliament resolution on the use of Facebook users’ data by Cambridge Analytica and the impact on data protection
• European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2018 on the adequacy of the protection afforded by the EU-US Privacy Shield
• Conference of Presidents with Mark Zuckerberg - founder and CEO of Facebook