Facebook, the popular social media platform used by over 2 billion people, is having a pretty harrowing month after revealing to the world that it suspended Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) along with its political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica for gaining access to data of around 50 million users to target ads during the 2016 US elections. Over the past week, the Facebook data scandal has resulted in widespread criticism over the company’s failure to protect users’ data.

In what has been a dumpster fire of a week, Facebook has not only seen outrage from people around the world, but its market value has also taken a beating. In addition to this, Facebook is reportedly under FTC investigation and the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been called by the UK committee to testify on company’s practice on acquiring and storing user data among other things. A lot has happened over the past week, so we thought we would help you catch up with what has been going on. Here’s what you need to know the Facebook controversy.

1.On Friday, March 16, Facebook explained via a blog post how SCL and Cambridge Analytica came into possession of the user data. In 2015, psychology professor, Aleksandr Kogan, created an app called “thisisyourdigitallife” which offered a personality prediction. Around 270,000 downloaded the app and gave their permission to access their Facebook information such as content they liked and information about their friends. This is what most app developers typically do. However, Kogan violated Facebook’s rules when he handed the data to SCL/ Cambridge Analytica. Soon after discovering this, Kogan’s app was removed from Facebook and he along with all parties in possession of the data were asked to certify that all information was destroyed.

2.Soon after, The New York Times and The Observer reported on March 17 that Cambridge Analytica harvested private information of over 50 million Facebook users without their consent, resulting in one of the largest data breaches of all time. The data would then be used by the firm to identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behaviour during the 2016 US election after the company was hired by the Trump campaign to run its data operations.

3.On Monday, March 19, Facebook stock was down by 6.9 per cent, which is the most Facebook had fallen in a single day over the past five years. This caused the company’s market value to fall by around $40 billion. Even the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg lost around $4.8 billion.

4.Facebook this week tried to take control of the narrative after facing severe backlash. The company said on March 19 that it hired a digital forensics firm, Stroz Friedberg, to conduct an audit of Cambridge Analytica. The social media giant has also asked Christopher Wylie and Aleksandr Kogan to submit to the audit as well. However, the UK Information Commissioners Office, which wants to conduct its own audit, requested the Stroz Friedberg auditors to stand down.

5.On the same day, The New York Times reported that Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, will leave the company later this year. His exit reportedly stems from an internal dispute on how the company should handle the spread of misinformation. The report suggests that Stamos wanted to be more transparent about security issues, something the other Facebook employees were not in favour of.

6.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been asked to appear in front of a UK Parliamentary Committee to testify on how Facebook acquires and hold on to user data from their site and whether data has been taken without users consent. It is now time to hear from a senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process, Damian Collins, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said in a letter to Zuckerberg.

7.On Tuesday, Cambridge Analytica CEO, Alexander Nix, was suspended after he claimed credit for the election of Donald Trump in a series of secret recordings. In the view of the Board, Mr. Nixs recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation, the company said in a statement.

8.Facebook is also being investigated by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts who have requested the company to hand over information on how Cambridge Analytica used its data.

9.Following the scandal, the “delete Facebook” movement started trending. It picked up steam after WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton tweeted, It is time. along with the hashtag #DeleteFacebook, suggesting that he and his followers should abandon Facebook.

10.IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that he can summon Mark Zuckerberg to India if the data breach has been found to compromise Indians as well. “If Facebook is found to be involved in data breach of Indians, we will take very strict action against them including the summoning of Mark Zuckerberg to India,” Prasad told reporters in New Delhi.

11.On Wednesday, Zuckerberg finally spoke out. In a Facebook post, the CEO pledged to take a series of steps to protect user data and fix the breach of trust between the company and its users. Zuckerberg said that Facebook will investigate all apps that had access to large amount of data, restrict developers data access, and finally provide a tool to users to know which apps they have allowed to access your data and provide an easy way to revoke the permissions. “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you. I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

12.In an interview with CNN, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the data scandal and said he was willing to testify in front of Congress. “This was a major breach of trust, and I’m really sorry that this happened,” Zuckerberg said. “We have a basic responsibility to protect peoples’ data.”