Facebook Reaches $5 Billion Settlement With US Govt For Privacy Violations

Jul. 13, 2019

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly agreed to a $5 billion settlement with Facebook to end its probe into the latter’scontroversial privacy practices. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the 5-member FTC panel voted 3-2 to approve the deal, which now awaits the green signal from the US Justice Department. It is still unclear, however, as to what restrictions, if any, will be imposed on the social media giant as per the settlement. Both FTC and Facebook declined to comment on the story.

A lot of observers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the penalty that they say is meager for the numerous privacy violations from the company over the years. Some even described it as an’embarrassing joke’, and a‘disproportionately modest fine’. US Congressman David Cicilline even contended that“The FTC just gave Facebook a Christmas present five months early”.

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