UK parliament asks Zuckerberg to testify

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the alleged use of personal Facebook data by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica (all times local): 5:20 p.m. A British parliamentary committee is summoning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to answer questions on fake news as authorities step up efforts to determine whether data has been improperly used to influence elections.

(1 of 1) A Facebook logo being displayed in a start-up companies gathering at Paris' Station F, in Paris. A former employee of a Trump-affiliated data-mining firm says it used algorithms that "took fake news to the next level" using data inappropriately obtained from Facebook.

March 20, 2018

The request comes amid reports that a U.K. company used Facebook data to help Donald Trump win the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The company, Cambridge Analytica, has been accused of improperly using information from more than 50 million Facebook accounts. It denies wrongdoing.

The chairman of the U.K. parliamentary media committee, Damian Collins, said Tuesday that his group has repeatedly asked Facebook how it uses data and that Facebook officials "have been misleading to the committee."

1:15 p.m.

Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman says the company would be willing to speak with federal regulators about the use of personal data by a political research firm tied to the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Cambridge Analytica obtained Facebook account data without users' knowledge and retained it after claiming it had been deleted. Chris Wylie, who once worked for Cambridge Analytica, was quoted as saying the company used the data to build psychological profiles so voters could be targeted.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg was the first to report that the Federal Trade Commission is probing Facebook over the use of that personal data.

The FTC says it's aware of the issues that have been raised. It wouldn't comment on whether it was investigating Facebook, but said it takes "any allegations of violations of our consent decrees very seriously."

9:51 a.m.

Facebook is having one of its worst weeks as a publicly traded company with a share sell-off continuing for a second day.

Britain's Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told the BBC that she was investigating Facebook and has asked the company not to pursue its own audit of Cambridge Analytica's data use. Denham is also pursuing a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's servers.

Facebook's stock tumbled 2 percent at the opening bell Tuesday following its worst trading day in four years.

Facebook Inc. is coming under intense scrutiny since The New York Times and The Guardian newspaper reported that former Trump campaign consultant Cambridge Analytica used data, including user likes, inappropriately obtained from roughly 50 million Facebook users to try to sway elections.