U.S. regulators approve $5 billion Facebook settlement over privacy issues: source

(Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission accepted a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook Inc (FB.O) this week over its investigation into the social media firm’s dealing with of person information, a source accustomed to the scenario mentioned on Friday.

The FTC has been investigating allegations Facebook inappropriately shared data belonging to 87 million customers with the now-defunct British political consulting agency Cambridge Analytica. The probe has targeted on whether or not the info sharing violated a 2011 consent settlement between Facebook and the regulator.

Investors cheered information of the deal and pushed Facebook shares up 1.8%, whereas a number of highly effective Democratic lawmakers in Washington condemned the proposed penalty as insufficient.

The FTC is predicted to incorporate within the settlement different restrictions on how Facebook treats person privacy, in line with the Wall Street Journal, which additionally mentioned that the company vote was alongside celebration traces, with three Republicans voting to approve it and two Democrats opposed.

The settlement could be the biggest civil penalty ever paid to the company.

The FTC and Facebook declined to remark.

Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat and chair of a congressional antitrust panel, referred to as the $5 billion penalty “a Christmas present five months early.”

“This fine is a fraction of Facebook’s annual revenue. It won’t make them think twice about their responsibility to protect user data,” he mentioned.

Facebook’s income for the primary quarter of this yr was $15.1 billion whereas its internet revenue was $2.43 billion. It would have been increased, however Facebook put aside $3 billion for the FTC penalty.

While the deal resolves a serious regulatory headache for Facebook, the Silicon Valley agency nonetheless faces additional potential antitrust probes because the FTC and Justice Department undertake a wide-ranging evaluate of competitors among the many greatest U.S. tech corporations.

It can be dealing with public criticism from President Donald Trump and others about its deliberate cryptocurrency Libra over issues about privacy and cash laundering.

The Cambridge Analytica missteps, in addition to anger over hate speech and misinformation on its platform, have additionally prompted calls from folks starting from presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren to a Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, for the federal government to power the social media big to promote Instagram, which it purchased in 2012, and WhatsApp, bought in 2014.

But the corporate’s core enterprise has confirmed resilient, as Facebook blew previous earnings estimates prior to now two quarters.

While particulars of the settlement are unknown, in a letter to the FTC earlier this yr, Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Josh Hawley, a Republican, informed the company that even a $5 billion civil penalty was too little and that high officers, probably together with founder Mark Zuckerberg,…