https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/2/17528610/federal-investigation-facebook-cambridge-analytica-doj-fbi-sec

The federal investigation into data mining firm Cambridge Analytica and its relationship to Facebook has been expanded to include an examination into the social network itself, according to a report from The Washington Post. Specifically, investigators want to know whether members of the social network lied to lawmakers, the public, and investors about the massive data privacy scandal that broke back in March. The investigation is being led by the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Prior to today, the investigation focused solely on Cambridge Analytica and did not include Facebook itself. Now, federal authorities want to know whether Facebook made false or misleading public statements about its sharing of information with Cambridge Analytica, a firm with connections to the campaign of President Donald Trump that purchased the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users from a psychology professor named Aleksandr Kogan. Kogan obtained that data by using Facebook’s generous third-party API to glean information from users — and those users’ friends — who logged into a quiz app he created. Facebook confirmed to The Washington Post that its cooperating with the federal agencies involved.