Portuguese consumer rights watchdog DECO is demanding answers from Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal.
As the movement #deletefacebook sweeps the net, DECO wants to know if and how personal data of Facebook’s 5.8 million Portuguese cybernauts was used. If it doesn’t get answers legal action has “not been ruled out”, say reports stressing Facebook has lost billions in value since the scandal broke.
But international media has been less dramatic. Forbes financial contributor Andy Swan has dubbed the ‘user revolt’ as a “flash in the trillion-dollar pan”.
Portugal’s attempt to get answers, addressed in a letter dated March 22, has been mirrored by organisations in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Brazil. Says tabloid Correio da Manhã, “up until last night, Facebook had not responded, and it is not expected to do so”.
Users have been reportedly leaving in droves, though analysts stress “the pattern you see is very common in movements that don’t stick”.
Multimillionaire Elon Musk may have joined other big names in deleting and saying “never again”, but his condemnation and the weight it could carry may, in the end, count for very little.
DECO’s issue is also with the fact that Facebook earns “tens of millions in our country without having any physical presence here, or paying Portuguese taxes”, adds CM.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
