Facebook has reportedly settled with the FTC for a staggering $5 billion

On Friday, July 12, word spread that after over a year of investigation, Facebook agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission for a record-setting $5 billion. While both Facebook and the FTC declined to comment, we do know that Facebook’s data practices have been under increasing scrutiny since the Cambridge Analytica scandal following the 2016 presidential election, when a political consulting firm that worked with the Trump campaign had improperly acquired information on millions of Facebook users. This was following a 2011 consent agreement wherein Facebook agreed that it wouldn’t share data with third parties without its users’ affirmative consent.

To date, the largest penalty that the FTC has levied was against Google in 2012; that whopping $22.5 million fine now seems relatively inconsequential compared to what Facebook has reportedly agreed to.

Some critics believe a fine isn’t sufficient. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), for example, believe that “[p]ersonal responsibility must be recognized from the top of the corporate board down to the product development teams.” Another advocate group, Open Waters Institute, stated that "[t]he fine is a mere cost of doing business that makes breaking the law worth it for Facebook."

Unfortunately for Facebook, this settlement won’t necessarily be the end of possible regulation and legal problems. The Securities and Exchange Commission, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, and US Department of Housing and Urban Development have all taken issue with various aspects of the social media platform.

It’s unclear whether Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be held personally liable under the settlement, but he recently stated: “I believe Facebook has a responsibility to help address these [privacy] issues, and I’m looking forward to discussing them with lawmakers around the world… But people shouldn’t have to rely on individual companies addressing these issues by themselves. We should have a broader debate about what we want as a society and how regulation can help.”

We will continue to keep our readers posted as more news unfolds.

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