Social media giant Facebook is definitely going through a difficult year as its reputation has been at stake. After the data leak scandal, it was revealed that Facebook was selling users' data to other companies to develop revenue from ads. A cache of documents have now been revealed which give a clearer picture into the conversations between Mark Zuckerberg and his team members with respect to users' data. The confidential documents have been obtained from a California lawsuit and give more information into privacy, user data and how it dealt with another social media platform Vine, which it considered its competitor. The documents came up after Facebook was sued by company Six4Three for reducing its business. Facebook Wanted To Trade Its Users' Data for Revenue As Far Back As 2012. 

Damian Collins, a British lawmaker who was following on the case has released these documents which shows an email conversation of Mark Zuckerberg. Twitter had launched Vine in the year 2013 and Facebook decided to limit the application's access to its users' data. The email reads, "Twitter launched Vine today which lets you shoot multiple short video segments to make one single, 6-second video. As part of their NUX, you can find friends via FB. Unless anyone raises objections, we will shut down their friends API access today." To this email, Zuckerberg has replied, "Yup, go for it." Taiwanese Hacker Threats to Delete Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Account; Promises to Live Stream the Event. 

This email is listed as evidence under the section, "Targeting competitor Apps." Collins further notes, "The files show evidence of Facebook taking aggressive positions against apps, with the consequence that denying them access to data led to the failure of that business." Vine was shut down in the year 2016 with a promise of new application called Byte in the year 2019. Before the release of these documents, Facebook announced that it would update its policies about governing competitor apps’ data access. Meanwhile, Facebook's spokesperson had also called the documents by Six4Three baseless for their case. He said they were presented in a misleading way.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 06, 2018 09:25 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).