The information was held in a readable format within the company's internal data storage systems. Facebook says it "found no evidence to date" of abuse.
Facebook had given online advertisers tools to exclude users from viewing their ads on the basis of race, gender and other federally protected characteristics. Now Facebook is changing that.
The video was viewed about 4,000 times before Facebook removed it. Then the social media platform had to contend with more than a million attempted re-uploads.
The shootings at mosques in New Zealand were live-streamed on Facebook, and shared on YouTube and Twitter. The companies have been challenged on their ability to remove this kind of content quickly.
In a rare area of bipartisan agreement and after years of little regulation, lawmakers in both chambers say the tech industry needs to do more to protect its users' personal information.
The company said ads and other content containing false information about vaccines will be pulled from the platform and accounts that persist in disseminating discredited opinions will be disabled.
"The age of inadequate self-regulation must come to an end," says Damian Collins, chair of the committee behind the report, which is often scathing on Facebook's practices and corporate conduct.
Facebook "was able to build a unique database for each individual user and thus to gain market power," says Andreas Mundt of Germany's Federal Cartel Office.
WhatsApp has been accused of being used to spread rumors — with serious consequences. Now the ubiquitous messaging app is moving to limit how many people users can forward messages to.