Indonesia launches criminal investigation into Facebook data misuse case

The volcano of problems that erupted ever since the Facebook data-breach scandal came to light is refusing to simmer down, evident from the fact that the company is being questioned over the matter in many countries around the world.

Indonesia has gone a step ahead and launched criminal investigation into the data misuse case. According to reports, the National Police even questioned the company’s Indonesia’s public policy head Ruben Hattari this week.

It’s, however, worth mentioning that the probe is in initial stages, and there’s no clarity on whether this will lead to the police pressing criminal charges against the company or any of its Indonesian executives.

Meanwhile, in a separate but related development, Indonesia has given Facebook a seven day ultimatum to furnish more details on how personal data of Indonesian citizen was compromised and whether other third-parties (aside from Cambridge Analytica) – like CubeYou and Aggregate IQ – have also received the data.

In case you aren’t aware, Facebook recently revealed that over a million Indonesian Facebook users (1,096,666 to be precise) were affected by the data breach.

According to the country’s communications ministry, they’ve also asked the social media giant to detail what steps the company is taking to make sure such incidents aren’t repeated in future. The ministry has sent a letter in this regard to Facebook Ireland Ltd, which is the company’s main international business unit.

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