Yes, users can copy this data for backup purposes, that is covered by fair use.

> Usually copyright infringement focuses on distribution for piracy and/or fraudulent sales — this is neither.

I'm not sure what you mean. Copyright infringement is the act of infringing on one's copyright. It's not a question of focus.

Copyright law does focus on certain aspects of it but it's not up to Facebook to decide when it's copyright and when it's not. The law is pretty clear here.

This is clearly distribution and clearly not licensed copying.

The purpose here is largely irrelevant.

Further, this is clearly unauthorised access and removal of user data. This is quite likely a criminal act under US hacking laws.

FWIW the sibling comments are correct under USA's Fair Use but in the UK there is only a very restrictive Fair Dealing which last I looked did not allow backups without permission unless there is no digital protection in place. There is a right under S.50A to make a backup of a computer program but when paired with the rest of the act it's unworkable.

In the UK you can't (you could for a while) rip a CD/DVD, apps like iTunes are contributory infringers.

Backups are a special case exempted from copyright. What is happening here is clearly not a backup for personal use but redistribution to another party for commercial use.