UniCredit has stopped using Facebook for advertising: CEO

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s UniCredit has stopped using Facebook for advertising and marketing campaigns and will not do so again until the U.S. giant improves its ethical standards, the bank’s CEO said on Tuesday.

A Facebook sign is seen during the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai, China August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song

“Facebook is not acting in an ethical way... We will not use it until it has proper ethical behavior,” Jean Pierre Mustier said during a conference call with analysts on Tuesday.

Asked whether the decision had been related to a scandal involving political consultancy Cambridge Analytica Mustier replied yes.

He said Facebook had guaranteed it would not use users’ data but had done so in the end.

Facebook has faced intense scrutiny around a data breach row involving Cambridge Analytica, which saw millions of users’ data improperly accessed.

The scandal has prompted multiple official investigations in the United States and Europe.

UniCredit said the decision to stop using Facebook for its business activity had been taken at the end of March.

Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

(Original source)