The social-media giant has received questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The SEC and FBI join the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission in probing how the political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which aided President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election, purchased data on 87 million users of Facebook without their consent.
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica officials have provided conflicting accounts of what the social-media giant knew about how the data was going to be used by Cambridge Analytica.
“We are cooperating with officials in the US, UK and beyond,” a spokesman for Facebook said. “We’ve provided public testimony, answered questions, and pledged to continue our assistance as their work continues.”
The Washington Post previously reported the broadening of the investigation.
The Cambridge Analytica controversy has led to more scrutiny of Facebook’s data-sharing practices, including how the company’s answers surrounding these issues appear to have changed over time. In testimony before lawmakers in April, for example, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook moved to eliminate broad access to information about users’ friends in 2014, and developers had until May 2015 to comply with the rules. Mr. Zuckerberg at the time didn’t mention that Facebook struck customised data-sharing deals that gave select companies access to user records after the point in 2015 when it said it walled off that information.
Facebook, in a 747-page document it submitted to Congress Friday night at midnight, disclosed that it had given dozens of companies special access to user data, detailing for the first time deals that contrasted with Mr. Zuckerberg’s previous public statements that it restricted person information to outsiders in 2015.
The SEC, which is tasked with holding companies accountable for the statements they make to investors, could shine a light on what disclosures the firm has made surrounding its data-sharing and the Cambridge Analytica episode.
Representatives for the FBI, SEC, FTC and Justice Department either declined to comment or couldn’t immediately be reached.
