U.S. regulators have approved a $5 billion penalty to be levied on Facebook to settle a probe into the social network’s privacy and data protection lapses, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The newspaper said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the settlement in a 3-2 vote.
According to the report, the deal, which would be the largest penalty ever imposed by the FTC for privacy violations, still needs approval from the Justice Department before it is finalised.
Although details have not yet been released, the deal will likely include restrictions on how Facebook is able to use personal data.
Charlotte Slaiman of the consumer group Public Knowledge thinks it is unlikely the restrictions will be overly harsh.
“We don’t yet know key aspects of the settlement: whether Facebook must make any changes to its business model or practices as a result,” said Charlotte Slaiman, the group’s Competition Policy Counsel. “By itself, this fine will not be sufficient to change Facebook’s behaviour.”
‘Privacy is key’
The outlook was more optimistic at the Center for Democracy and Technology, whose president Nuala O’Connor said the fine underscored the importance of “data stewardship” in the digital age.
“The FTC has put all companies on notice that they must safeguard personal information,” Ms. O’Connor said.
The FTC announced last year it reopened its investigation into a 2011 privacy settlement with Facebook after revelations that personal data on tens of millions of users was hijacked by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which was working on the Donald Trump campaign in 2016.
Facebook has also faced questions about whether it improperly shared user data with business partners in violation of the earlier settlement. The leading social network with more than two billion users worldwide has also been facing inquiries on privacy from regulators around the world.
The fine is unlikely to hurt Facebook, which logged a profit of $2.4 billion on revenue that climbed 26% to $15.1 billion in the first three months of this year.
Some Facebook critics have argued the company should face tougher sanctions including monitoring of its data practices.
Faced with criticism, Facebook’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, called on governments to do more to regulate social networks, instead of leaving the work to companies. “It’s not for private companies, however big or small, to come up with those rules. It is for democratic politicians in the democratic world to do so,” Mr. Clegg had said in an interview with the BBC.
