On Thursday, Meta filed a lawsuit in a federal court in California against the US company Voyager Labs, which specializes in the mass reading of data from websites (scraping) and its analysis (data mining). The mother of Facebook and Instagram accuses the defendant of creating more than 38,000 fake profiles on Facebook alone and of having collected publicly visible data on users of the social network on a large scale and thus spied on those affected and the service.
Mass AI analysis of social media posts
Voyager Labs Hat according to the court documents used “fake accounts” to harvest information from over 600,000 Facebook users between July and September 2022. According to the report, Meta deactivated more than 60,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to Voyager Labs “on or about January 12” in parallel with the court case. The group demands that the surveillance company stop violating its terms of service. The court is to ban Voyager Labs from using Facebook, Instagram and the services associated with these platforms. The defendant is also said to compensate Meta for “illegitimate profits in an amount that has yet to be proven”. Voyager Labs had unjustly enriched itself at the expense of the plaintiff.
Voyager Labs bills itself as “a global leader in advanced investigation solutions” powered by artificial intelligence (AI). In practice, the company analyzes masses of social media posts in order to make statements about users. For example, it sold its services to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) – with the claim to be able to predict which people were likely to commit crimes in the future.
“This industry secretly collects information”
Facebook warned the LAPD in November 2021 to stop spying on members with fake profiles and extensive data collection. Earlier, the Brennan Center for Justice released documents stating that Los Angeles police officers are required to collect the social media information and email addresses of all civilians they interview. This goes hand in hand with a comprehensive analysis of contributions that users post in social networks. For this, the LAPD relies on special software from third-party providers such as Voyager Labs, Palantir and Dataminr.
“Companies like Voyager are part of an industry that offers scraping services to everyone,” complained Meta in a blog entry. This happens regardless of “which users they target and for what purpose”. Even the creation of profiles around criminal behavior is supported. Meta elaborates, “This industry covertly collects information that people share with their community, family and friends, without oversight or accountability and in ways that may affect people’s civil rights.” Such services operated across many platforms and national borders, requiring concerted efforts by operators, policymakers and civil society to curb abuse. Meta will continue to take action against these types of facilities.
(tiw)
