Facebook reveals first major user terms update since 2015

"As head of GDPR, I can tell you that we needed to update our terms anyway. This would’ve happened anyway."

The updates are in response to three major changes:

1. Data policies around new services and business that Facebook has added since the last time it updated its terms, like Marketplace and Facebook Live.
2. More information about the way Facebook shares user data within core businesses, like Instagram or Whatsapp. Facebook's different businesses often share data through the Facebook Audience Network, a combined data pool from Instagram, Messenger and Facebook used for ad targeting.
3. More transparency about the commitments the company makes to data privacy, like the fact that it does not sell data on an individual level or to third-party vendors.

Our thought bubble: There have been a lot of rumors that Facebook is jumping on these updates in response to controversies like Cambridge Analytica and the EU's new sweeping data privacy law, GDPR. This update was coming down the tracks regardless — it's standard business practice to revise terms after building or acquiring new businesses. The updates do, however, underscore the new urgency at Facebook to be transparent about user data and to update policies transparently and regularly.

How it works: The company is rolling out its draft of the new terms today. They will be made available through News Feed posts for existing users and will be displayed for new users upon installing the app. The public will have seven days to comment on the draft terms. Facebook will use that feedback to create a finalized terms of services that it will roll out in the next few weeks.

• All users will have to eventually agree to the new terms, according to Sherman.

Go deeper: See a full list of the updates.

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker