Virginia Sen. Mark Warner isn't letting Facebook off the hook for experimenting with user emotions.
Warner, a member of the U.S. Senate since 2008, is encouraging the Federal Trade Commission to "fully explore" a 2012 Facebook study in which the company overexposed users to either positive or negative content in their News Feeds to examine how it impacted their emotions.
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Warner's plea came in the form of a letter to FTC Chair Edith Ramirez; he asked the commission to explore possible regulations needed to police companies that are collecting and analyzing "big data."
"Companies like Facebook may have to perform research on a broad scale in order to improve their products," Warner wrote. "However, because of the constantly evolving nature of social media, big data and the Internet, many of these issues currently fall into unchartered territory."
Warner's letter isn't the only complaint the FTC has received regarding the Facebook study. Last week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public-interest research center, filed a complaint with the FTC asking for an investigation. The Information Commissioner’s Office, a data regulator in the United Kingdom, is also investigating Facebook's actions.
A Facebook spokesperson provided Mashable with the following statement regarding Warner's letter:
It’s clear that people were upset by this study, and we take responsibility for it. We want to do better in the future, and are improving our process based on this feedback. The study was done with appropriate protections for people’s information, and we are happy to answer any questions regulators may have.
Law experts told Mashable earlier this month that they believed Facebook's actions were indeed legal. You can read Warner's full letter, here.