Mozilla slams Facebook for banning accounts of third-party researchers

Firefox browser developer Mozilla has slammed Facebook for terminating the accounts of New York University researchers, saying that the claims made by the social network “simply do not hold water”.

Facebook has banned personal accounts and platform access associated with researchers from New York University (NYU) for allegedly violating its term of service by scraping user data without permission. The academics, however, have hit back at the platform, saying Facebook is silencing them.

According to Mozilla’s chief security officer Marshall Erwin, Facebook claims the accounts were shut down due to privacy problems with its Ad Observer platform.