California's attorney general says Facebook is failing to comply with his subpoenas (FB)

In a court filing published Wednesday, California's top government lawyer, Xavier Becerra, said that the Silicon Valley-based social network was dragging its feet over his demands for data, failing to properly answer some questions and outright refusing other requests.

Becarra's office is currently engaged in an investigation into the business practices of Facebook and whether its approach to user privacy violates California law.

Facebook has failed to properly respond to a subpoenas relating to this, the court filing said: "Facebook has provided no answers for nineteen interrogatories and produced no documents in response to six document requests. Facebook has also wholly refused to search communications involving senior executives for responsive materials. Thus, Facebook is ... failing to comply with lawfully issued subpoenas and interrogatories."

Becerra's office is now asking the San Francisco Superior Court to take action to force Facebook to comply with its requests.

The issue represents a fresh headache for Facebook, which has lurched from scandal to scandal over the last two years and may result in more of its sensitive internal documents and communications becoming public. Also on Wednesday, 4,000 pages of documentation relating to Facebook's approach to user data and privacy were made public , despite the social network fighting for months to keep them secret.

A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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