Privacy setting shortcuts are displayed on Apple Inc. iPhone smartphone screen as a FaceBook Inc. logo is seen in this arranged photograph taken in London, U.K., on Friday, May, 15, 2015. Facebook reached a deal with New York Times Co. and eight other media outlets to post stories directly to the social networkÕs mobile news feeds, as publishers strive for new ways to expand their reach. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Facebook Inc wielded user data like a bargaining chip, providing access when that sharing might encourage people to spend more time on the social network – and imposing strict limits on partners in cases where it saw a potential competitive threat, emails show.
A trove of internal correspondence, published online Wednesday by UK lawmakers, provides a look into the ways Facebook executives, including chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, treated information posted by users like a commodity that could be harnessed in service of business goals. Apps were invited to use Facebook’s network to grow, as long as that increased usage of Facebook. Certain competitors, in a list reviewed by Zuckerberg himself, were not allowed to use Facebook’s tools and data without his personal sign-off.
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