Washington (June 6, 2018) – Senator Edward J. Markey, Ranking Member of the East Asia, The Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today urged committee leadership to hold a hearing on the new revelations that Facebook shared personal consumer information with Chinese companies, at least one of which has been long identified by U.S. defense and intelligence agencies as a potential security risk. According to reporting published in The New York Times, Facebook, for nearly a decade, knowingly provided private user data, including relationship status, religion, and political preferences, to four Chinese electronics companies, including Huawei, a telecommunications company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. 

“Although Facebook officials stated that ‘all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei’s servers,’ I have serious concerns about the foreign policy implications of American companies providing such information to Chinese companies,” writes Senator Markey in his letter to Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). “Unfortunately, this is yet another instance of actions by U.S. technology companies potentially impacting American national security, and it is incumbent upon our committee to exercise oversight in this regard. The core tenets of the U.S.-backed international system are at risk, and from our position in the United States Senate, we must send a clear signal that U.S. companies must not empower China’s increasingly coercive behavior.”

A copy of Senator Markey’s letter can be found HERE.

Just earlier this week, Senators Markey and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) queried Facebook about the most recent development that the company shared user information with at least 60 device companies, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and others, without user consent. Senators Markey and Blumenthal previously queried Facebook about its role in and response to the troubling collection of personal data from tens of millions of Americans by the firm Cambridge Analytica.

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