200 apps that had access to large quantities of user data have been suspended by Facebook Inc as it conducts its review into apps that had access to large quantities of user data.
This is in a response to a scandal around political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Vice President of Product Partnerships in a statement said the apps were suspended pending a thorough investigation into whether they misused any data.
Facebook said it has looked into thousands of apps till date as part of an investigation that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced on March 21.
Zuckerberg had said the social network will investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before the company curtailed data access in 2014.
“There is a lot more work to be done to find all the apps that may have misused people’s Facebook data – and it will take time,” Archibong said.
“We have large teams of internal and external experts working hard to investigate these apps as quickly as possible.”
Recall that Facebook was called to heel in mid-March, when media reports stated that Cambridge Analytica used improperly accessed data to build profiles on American voters and influence the 2016 presidential election.
The incident led to backlash from celebrities and resulted in the company losing billions in market value. Zuckerberg apologised for the mistakes his company made and testified before the U.S. Congress.
The company, however, regained much of its lost market value after it reported a surprisingly strong 63 percent rise in profit and an increase in users when it announced quarterly results on April 25.
Shares of the company were up 0.4 percent at $187.65 in pre-market trading on Monday.