Facebook said today the company was "outraged" after being "deceived" over the misuse of data by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which improperly harvested information on 50 million users.

A company statement appeared to place the blame for the incident on the British-based firm linked to President Donald Trump, which according to Facebook violated terms of the social network by misusing data from an academic researcher.

"The entire company is outraged we were deceived. We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people's information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens," the statement said.

It added that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and their teams "are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward because they understand the seriousness of this issue."

Source: PTI