Facebook has turned around against an European Union investigation whose practices isn’t well received by the social media giant which had led to the organization being sued over privacy concerns by Facebook.
There are two investigations being carried out into the social network’s operation in order to fact check if it breaches the EU competition law.
But in order for the EU to be successful with this operation, it demanded internal documents from the American company which includes about 2,500 specific key phrases.
Facebook found that to mean handing over unrelated but highly sensitive data ultimately leading Facebook to take legal action against the European Union in response.
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Meanwhile, the EU says it will defend it’s case in court and it’s investigation into Facebook’s potential anti-competitive conduct is ongoing.
The social media giant has filed an appeal to the EU courts, arguing against the breadth of the document requests.
Speaking of the ‘Irrelevant documents’
“We are cooperating with the commission and would expect to give them hundreds of thousands of documents,” said Tim Lamb, Facebook’s competition lawyer.
“The exceptionally broad nature of the commission’s requests means we would be required to turn over predominantly irrelevant documents that have nothing to do with the commission’s investigations, including highly sensitive personal information such as employees’ medical information, personal financial documents, and private information about family members of employees.”
According to a Facebook spokesperson, the company isn’t trying to halt the EU’s investigation and affirms the company had been very cooperative during the investigation so far.
He said Brussels’ request for any documents which include the phrases “big question”, “shut down” and “not good for us” could even force Facebook to hand over confidential security assessments of its California headquarters.
Facebook says it offered commission investigators the chance to view sensitive but unrelated documents in a secure-viewing room where no copies could be made, but the offer was refused which ultimately led the social media giant to take legal action right up against the European Union in order to defend it’s stance.
