Facebook has agreed to pay a record $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission after a yearlong investigation into the company's privacy practices, according to multiple news reports Friday.
The reports by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times, based on unnamed sources, say that the FTC this week voted to approve the settlement that was born out of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal that came to light last year. If the reported amount is correct, it would be the biggest fine ever imposed by the United States on a tech company.
An FTC spokeswoman said Friday that the agency would have no comment. Facebook has not yet returned a request for comment.
After the news last year that political data consulting firm Cambridge Analytica accessed the personal information of up to 87 million Facebook users without their explicit consent, the FTC opened an investigation into whether the Silicon Valley tech giant had violated a 2011 settlement regarding its privacy practices.
In April as it reported quarterly results, Facebook said it was setting aside $3 billion in anticipation of a fine.
Facebook critics, such as advocacy groups that have decried the company's privacy and other policies, were quick to slam the reported deal.
"A fine _ no matter how large _ is not enough," said David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress Education Fund, in a statement Friday. "It is clear that Facebook has too much power and is too big to manage. A Federal Trade Commission that was serious about its job would push for structural reforms _ like spinning off Instagram and WhatsApp _ that would create competition in the social media space and make Facebook more likely to respect its users."
The reported fine is just the latest fallout from the Cambridge Analytica mess, which among other things led Congress to summon Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Washington last year. The scandal also sparked closer scrutiny and further criticism of tech giants by advocacy groups, politicians and others, some of whom have called for breaking up the tech giants.
Any settlement by the FTC and Facebook would still need approval from the Department of Justice.
