Facebook was warned of apparent Russian data trawl in 2014, MPs told

Social media firm claims no breach was found after it carried out investigation

A Facebook engineer warned the company in 2014 that users apparently based in Russia were scooping vast amounts of data from the site on a daily basis, lawmakers from nine countries have been told, in heated exchanges about whether the social media company poses a threat to democracy.

Facebook's representative, Richard Allan, often looked uncomfortable during hours of questioning by members of the House of Commons, where he once sat as a Liberal Democrat MP, and parliamentarians from eight other countries. An empty seat was left for th e company's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, underlining the committee's frustration about his refusal to appear.