back to article UK parliament sends snippy letter to Zuck and his poodle Clegg as it seems Facebook has been lying again

Facebook has been asked to explain "direct contradictions" in its testimony to the UK Parliament in light of new information revealed in a complaint from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. In a letter [PDF] sent from the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Damian Collins, to former …

  1. don't you hate it when you lose your account

    Shocked

    Hang on, just realised I'm not

    1. J. R. Hartley

      Re: Shocked

      Nick Clegg is a slippery bastard, just like the rest of the Libdems. He's perfect for that job, the lying Tory enabling swine.

      1. deive

        Re: Shocked

        I'd really like to know what the downvoters think of him?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Shocked

          Maybe it's not about him, but about "the rest of the Libdems"?

        2. Ben Tasker

          Re: Shocked

          My guess would be that the downvoters read

          > just like the rest of the Libdems.

          and recognised that Hartley is likely talking out of his arse.

          Clegg's Lib Dems were years ago now, and there've been multiple changes in both leadership and membership.

          Not to mention it does seem a little unfair to single out the Lib Dems, rather than also pointing out we've got the worst of Tory bastards in senior Government positions, and Labour's a complete and utter shit-show too, and lets not mention the company that calls itself The Brexit Party, complete with a leader who can't be deposed and lies more easily than he shits.

          I mean, I downvoted for the first reason - particularly as the Lib Dems are the only party that seem to be serious about trying to stop Brexit now that it's clear what an absolutely astoundingly fucking stupid idea it is.

          1. BigSLitleP

            Re: Shocked

            I 100% agree with Ben. That's why i downvoted him too.

          2. J. R. Hartley

            Re: Shocked

            Have you seen Jo Swindleton's voting history?

            Obviously not. Either that or you're all fucking thick.

          3. deive

            Re: Shocked

            Good point, I somehow managed to skip over that bit (perhaps a bit of uncoincious bias?).

            Grouping a whole diseperate groupd of people to attack is a lazy thing to do.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Shocked

              What, like people that voted for BREXIT?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In short: Facebook lies.

    Of course ! They have to, they don't have a choice !

    How else can you behave when even you business model is a complete lie ?

    They offer a free service, they have costs (big ones) and yet, on the paper, they don't have revenue from the users ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: In short: Facebook lies.

      "They offer a free service, they have costs (big ones) and yet, on the paper, they don't have revenue from the users ..."

      So the users are the product...it's not exactly a secret considering how frequently it's mentioned by commentards.

      Facebooks real problem is that so many of their attempts at business models based on their user data have been unsuccessful until they discovered that very little of the value (from a revenue perspective) is in the actual user details and instead in the content that the users provide (often stolen from other sources). The YouTube business model...

      That's not an attempt at defend ANY of Facebooks practices, more an attempt to match their "success" with their revenue.

    2. hoola Silver badge

      Re: In short: Facebook lies.

      Ah this is where we are all wrong: Facebook never lies, they just tell everyone their version of the truth. Presumably they are hoping that if they say it often enough and with the appropriate amount of gravitas and sincerity that it will become the truth.

      What appears to be happening is that regulatory and government bodies are not being taken into by the Facebook version of The Truth any longer and have reviewed it for what it is, a load of bare-faced lies.

  3. don't you hate it when you lose your account

    Just caught the reporting on CTF

    From the start I saw social media as unsocial, it's ability to destroy social cohesion for the benefit of the rich minority disgusts me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just caught the reporting on CTF

      It's what soshulist meeja is all about. It's designed to support soshulism. In soshulism, only the rich minority Party elite may enjoy the fruits of the proles' labours. Two legs better than four, Nineteen Eighty-four and all that. The masses must be kept stupid and entertained. Soshulism is Evil, which is why of course Facebook, Twitter, Insta, et al are busy making money from making stupid people even dumber... lolz fne catz looool m8

      The second greatest lie Humanity has foisted upon itself (after religion, of course), is that owning a mobile phone and a 'free' social media account somehow adds value to an utterly worthless opinion.

      But that's just my utterly worthless opinion, though not expressed via telephone. For what it's worth...

      1. Martin Gregorie

        Re: Just caught the reporting on CTF

        Looks like you don't get out much and/or are young and rather gullible.

        It was obvious from back when Uncle Joe took over in Russia that Marxism was a convenient smokescreen for yet another military dictatorship and its secret police. The same dictatorship is still in control both there and in what was Mao's China: all that's changed in both places is that the smokescreen now has a passing resemblance to democracy.

        If you didn't already know this, then a visit to Czechoslovakia in the late '80s when Solidarity was in the process of booting the Polish Communist Party out of power would have spelt that out in block capitals.

        The increasing spread of Solidarity in Poland meant that the poor bloody East Germans, who used to be able to visit Poland or Czechoslovakia on their summer hols, could now only visit Czechoslovakia. I was there at the time, camping with some mates, so we met a lot of young East Germans who were also camping. They were all well educated, friendly and spoke good English and, of course, we compared notes with them. There was one theme we kept hearing, which summarises as:

        "Of course we understand Marxism because we had to study it at school. It sounds wonderful: we just wish we had it".

        In other words, the 'socialist' bit of USSR was always a lie: its just ironic that many of their citizens were well-enough educated to understand this.

        1. Fading
          Headmaster

          Re: Just caught the reporting on CTF

          Ever wondered why "socialism" always ends up as an ogliarchy - and one that has to use violence to quell dissent?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Just caught the reporting on CTF

            @Fading

            Have you ever heard of Late Stage Capitalism?

          2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

            Re: Just caught the reporting on CTF

            Ever wondered why "socialism" always ends up as an ogliarchy

            Same reason as capitalism usually ends up as an oligarchy - human nature. No matter what the window dressing, people are people. And amoral and unethical people will end up at the top of any political system and profit from the misfortunes of others.

            When you are at the bottom of the heap, the words that the top tier use to oppress don't matter much and the boot on your neck has the same sole regardless of whether it has a hammer and sickle or a bald eagle stamped on it.

      2. don't you hate it when you lose your account

        Each to their ability and each to their needs

        FTFY

  4. redpawn

    Quantum Truth

    The quantum nature of Truth allow for the simultaneous truth and falsehood of any given statement until it is detected. From the point of origin infinite Virtual Truths and Virtual Lies follow every possible path to get to the recipient. Attempting to determine the Truth changes the Truth. At times Truth is entangled and finding the Truth in one location will change the Truth in another, which is what happened here. Therefore attempting to to examine the Truth or Lies of Zuck will either yield an exact Word Count or a determination of Truth with no object.

    1. Olivier2553

      Re: Quantum Truth

      I don't know what that means but get an upvote :)

      1. Fred Dibnah

        Re: Quantum Truth

        I don't know what it means either, but if Quantum Truth has upvotes it must also have downvotes.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Quantum Truth

          @redpawn is most likely an admirer of Douglas Adams by the sound of it.

          Have an upvote for this !

        2. abueloeddie

          Re: Quantum Truth

          What is Truth?

          (Pontius Pilate.)

    2. ColonelDare
      1. 0laf
        Boffin

        Re: Quantum Truth

        Quantum of Truth?

        A statement of fact is in fath both false and true until the point at which it is observed properly.

        Schrödinger's cat was in fact a dog.

    3. James 51
      Alien

      Re: Quantum Truth

      amanfrommars1, is that you?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Quantum Truth

        This is the second time I've seen one of his posts made from another ID, he's infecting the other AIs in El Reg's comment board. Or at least I hope redpawn is an AI, if he's human then we all have cause to worry! This is how Skynet begins, not with a nuclear explosion but with contagious confusion.

      2. Steve K

        Re: Quantum Truth

        Could be I. Geller also?

    4. calmeilles
      Go

      Re: Quantum Truth

      The quantum of truth is, of course, the iota.

      As in "There's not one iota of truth in that." Or "Beneath all the blather there is an iota of truth."

      By a special application of Pauli's exclusion principle only one iota of truth can exist in any location. Two truths in close proximity will result in mutual annihilation causing irreversible confusion of the facts.

      1. SVV

        Re: Quantum Truth

        "he quantum of truth is, of course, the iota."

        Surely it's the iotum?

    5. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: Quantum Truth

      Meaningless pscyobabble.

  5. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    sharksmile.gif

  6. Tromos

    Public cost duty allowance

    Blair, Brown, Clegg and co. all with snouts in the trough, raking in 115k pa for nothing worthwhile. Makes the MPs expenses scandal a mere ripple in a duckpond.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: Public cost duty allowance

      Indeed. Image that, a fund to help the poor, poor former ministers.

      Remind me which minister was at minimum wage when he got elected ?

    2. Peter X

      Re: Public cost duty allowance

      Exactly. I don't totally disagree with the concept of a 'Public Cost Duty Allowance' given that it's not really possible for someone who held such a position to get a job in Tesco in later life, however, may I suggest that any such payment should be means-tested? Only seems fair!

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Public cost duty allowance

        Although I feel that I must agree, have you noticed how quickly political leaders seem to age rapidly while in the "hot seat"? It could be seen as an old age pension for taking what looks like what must be an enormous amount of age inducing stress :-)

    3. Vincent Ballard

      Re: Public cost duty allowance

      It's not a salary or pension: it's an expenses claim to cover an office and secretary, and accounts have to be rendered. Reference

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Where’s the confusion?

    Facebook has an army of lawyers.

    How is each and every one of those expected to keep track of the others lies?

    Truth = liability

    2 Things lawyers have nightmares about.

    Maybe yelling “fake news” will make it all go away...

  8. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Facepalm

    You'll be amazed

    Actually I am. I am amazed at the stupidity that Facebook consistently shows by imagining that it can lie continually and never get caught.

    Especially that, this time, Facebook was lying to two different sets of people about the same thing, and nobody thought to present the same lies ?

    I expect a 12-year old to be that dumb, not a corporation with lawyers on its payroll.

    1. nematoad
      Unhappy

      Re: You'll be amazed

      I agree with you entirely but the sad thing is most of its users do not give a damn about all the lies. Facebook has become a de facto utility, a lot of people depend on it to keep in touch with family and "friends" and as all the shenanigans are hidden away a lot of them are blissfully unaware of all the nastiness.

      Many of people do not like their water, electricity or ISP providers but in a lot of cases they are stuck with what they have and is there a viable alternative to Facebook for these poor souls?

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: You'll be amazed

        "is there a viable alternative to Facebook for these poor souls?"

        They could try using this gadget they run FB on to make phone calls. Or text. Or email.

    2. FrogsAndChips Silver badge

      Re: You'll be amazed

      It's not about getting caught, it's about what happens when you get caught. FB have realized that no matter how much they break the laws and how many times they break their promises not to do it again, absolutely nothing will happen to them. See how their stock price jumped when they were issued a $5 bn fine but avoided supervision from the FTC: it was a slap on the wrist with a "Now be a good lad and don't do it again please" warning.

      So nothing stupid about this, they know they'll get caught again but they just couldn't care less.

      1. stiine Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Re: You'll be amazed

        True, but the same day that fine was announced, a 2nd investigation was announced. So the next fine should be 10x, so $50B.

        The same reasoning has to be applied to the Equifax breach. they sued for $575M assuming your typical low historical claim rate. Now that everybody and their brother is submitting claim forms, that USD$125 per person ammount is going to approach 1 cent. The next company that gets sued will probably end up with an amount per verified claimant fine with only a minimum amount-per-claim set. If they had done that for Equifax, they would have been on the hook for more than USD$18.3B dollars.

    3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: You'll be amazed

      not a corporation with lawyers

      If there are n lawyers in the room there will always be n+1 versions of the truth.

  9. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Holmes

    FartBook lies to Governments?

    This is news?

    This is a surprise?

    Hell no it isn't. It is just BAU for Zuck, Clegg and friends.

    Bring back the old Cleggy, and Compo in wellies naturally.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ahem...

    " - to who the letter is addressed – "

    Tsk. - to whom the letter is addressed - It was addressed to him, hence whom.

  11. adam payne

    Facebook has consistently maintained that it only heard about the problems from press reports, thereby alleviating it of direct responsibility or potential legal liability for the data-slurping company

    Facebook lie, of course not! /sarcasm

  12. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Flame

    Yeah, yeah, yeah ... and ????

    To be honest, unless there is a mighty action at the end of all this - either seeing some FB execs behind bars, or the UK moving to ban FB in the UK, all of this is really just for the popcorn sales.

    Something feeding the current state of politics is the observation that no matter how big the wrong, no matter how many people are affected, fuck all happens.

    Data breach, you say ? MILLIONS of peoples details spaffed ? Too bad really. A slap here, a tickle there, and the plebs will suck it up.

    Rinse and repeat for every singly egregious act anywhere in the establishment until you get to the Priti Patels and Boris Johnsons of the world and realise they are now in charge.

    Is it any wonder more and more people aren't respecting the law ? It clearly is for mugs only.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Just a thought

    If the $5 Billion the US fined Farcebook over C.A. was "pocket change", a UK £50 Billion fine should not only make then sit up and pay attention, but also go a good way to filling the Brexit black hole.

  14. Rich 2 Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Good grief

    PLEASE!!!! Just shut the buggery operation down.

  15. johnnyblaze

    Scum

    FB can drown in the rotten, stinking cesspit of their own making as far as I'm concerned. They can take all their cash-laden execs and belly flop into the filth where they belong, licking the crusty scum out of each others arseholes. I have no time at all for them at all, and never will. They're defecating slime of the lowest order, feeding of a braindead society who for some reason think FB are doing them a favour. Zuckerberg can go f*ck himself.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Scum?

    Do you mind if I keep a copy of your rant for future use? It'll save me loads of time as the facebook bit is completely interchangeable with with all the other vermin we have to endure these days. (Politicians, Lawyers, Religious bigots, Celebs and professionally offended SJWs)

    1. johnnyblaze

      Re: Scum?

      Feel free. Did it sound like I don't like FB, or wasn't it strong enough?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Scum?

        johnnyblaze,

        "Feel free. Did it sound like I don't like FB, or wasn't it strong enough?"

        I did get a 'slight' indication of your ire but if you feel you need to clarify ..... please do !!!

        :)

        BTW: Can only agree with your opinion.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Zucked

    Roger McNamee’s book on Facebook is a really readable introduction to the company’s flexible relationship with the truth.

    McNamee was an early investor in Facebook and a confidante of Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg but eventually saw through Facebook’s working model of breaking stuff, apologising and moving on without changing anything.

  18. maddoxx

    I hope noone of the commentards uses FB

    and Whatsapp and Insta......

  19. Majack

    Skunk Anansi

    Basically man joins company, others in company have done bad things, therefore man bad?

    F

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

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