Facebook has suspended tens of thousands of applications on its platform during an internal audit investigation it launched into app developers following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Many were found to be improperly harvesting user data.
“To date, this investigation has addressed millions of apps. Of those, tens of thousands have been suspended for a variety of reasons while we continue to investigate,” said a statement from Vice President of Product Partnerships Ime Archibong.
Archibong added that the suspended apps were not necessarily a threat and that in many cases they were suspended because developers did not respond to the company’s requests for information.
The suspended apps were linked to about 400 developers.
The social media giant has also banned apps completely in “a few cases” during its ongoing probe.
“That can happen for any number of reasons including inappropriately sharing data obtained from us, making data publicly available without protecting people’s identity or something else that was in clear violation of our policies,” the statement said.