Facebook Facing a $5 billion Fine
By Bruno Ugaz - Media Director at Advue Consulting
In late April, Facebook made an announcement that it was facing a $5 billion fine over its mishandling of personal information during the 2016 election campaign and other privacy related issues.
Federal regulators have been very vocal about the need to hold the social media giant accountable, but it seems pursuing that accountability is proving to be complicated.
Several months ago, the Federal Trade Commission vowed that they would hand down a historic penalty for Facebook, but now, just days before the final vote, it seems like they are having trouble on coming to an agreement. FTC negotiations have soured due to disagreements on the size of the $5 billion penalty and including Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg accountable for the violation of a 2011 agreement.
The FTC and Facebook 2011 agreement detailed a set of privacy guidelines that the social media network agreed to uphold. One of those guidelines include protections for consumers, their privacy and the necessity of consent before being given away without their knowledge, contrarily of how it was handled during the 2016 election campaign.
According to a NYT report, Facebook lawyers have fought against this claim, stating that Zuckerberg cannot be legally responsible to the actions of Facebook’s 35,000 employees.
The FTC has a history of pulling back punches when it comes to the tech industry. In 2012 , the FTC fined Google 22.5 million, the largest fine given out to any tech industry, for lying about not using “tracking cookies” for Safari user data. According to the Verge, on Q4 alone google amassed $14.4 billion in profits.
FTC chairman Joseph Simmons has come forward and said he has 3 Republican members ready to vote for the $5 billion penalty, but two Democratic chairmen are holding out on their final vote and looking to push for a stiffer punishment.
Though FTC rules allow for a majority vote to pass a ruling, Simmons is looking to avoid partisanship and currently working with Democrats to come to an agreement.
Facebook, as part of this new agreement with the FTC, is looking to create new positions within its company that would focus on privacy and policy compliance.
