US FTC says Facebook misused privacy decree to shut down ad research

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission criticized Facebook Inc on Thursday for making “misleading claims” to explain why it had disabled the accounts of researchers studying political ads on the social media platform.

Facebook said on Tuesday it had cut off the personal accounts and access of the New York University researchers because of concerns about other users’ privacy.

Facebook had initially said that the decision was made out of a need for the social media giant to live up to a consent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission.

But Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne later told Wired that the consent decree was not a reason to disable the researchers’ accounts.