A $5 billion fine isn’t enough to hold Facebook accountable.
That’s the message from a bipartisan group of senators to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, who criticized the settlement over the social media giant’s mishandling of users’ personal data.
“We believe that the reported settlement is woefully inadequate,” Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, wrote in a letter to the FTC on Tuesday. “It is clear that a $5 billion fine alone is a far cry from the type of monetary figure that would alter the incentives and behavior of Facebook and its peers.”
The letter from the three senators follows a vote from the Federal Trade Commission last week to approve the settlement with Facebook, which stemmed from an investigation the commission launched in 2018 into the social media giant’s mishandling of users’ private information.
The wide-ranging investigation began after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm that worked for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, improperly harvested the personal data of 87 million Facebook users. The information was collected through a quiz that accessed data not only from Facebook members, but their friends as well.
The investigation involved whether Facebook breached the terms of a 2011 settlement over charges the company deceived consumers when it promised their information would be kept private. The consent decree required the company to improve its privacy practices.
Facebook had been bracing for the $5 billion fine from the FTC stemming from privacy lapses, including the incident involving Cambridge Analytica. But the senators fear the commission, which is in charge of enforcing federal privacy regulations, failed to impose requirements on Facebook that would end its privacy missteps.
Instead, they would like to see a settlement that restricts the amount of data Facebook collects and uses, increases transparency of oversight into the company’s privacy practices, and hits Facebook with a fine that matches its violations, among other reforms.
Any settlement from the FTC that falls short of the standard outlined “will amount to an abdication of the commission’s obligations,” Blumenthal, Markey, and Hawley said.
“We are highly disappointed to learn that the commission has apparently failed to reach a strong, bipartisan agreement, sending the wrong message to tech companies,” the trio wrote, a reference to the FTC’s party-line vote on the settlement. “This result would amount to abandonment of the commission’s responsibility to serve American consumers and protect the public’s privacy. No company should be able to escape scrutiny and avoid just repercussions for illegal activity.”
The senators want information from the FTC about the settlement, including the commission’s process for determining the size of the fine and whether it will slap Facebook with new restrictions over its data collection.
While the $5 billion fine would be the largest imposed by the federal government on a tech company, it drew swift criticism from Democrats who said the settlement indicates Congress should step in to hold Silicon Valley accountable.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also advocated for tighter internet rules over privacy, though his call for more stringent federal regulations was viewed by some as an attempt to undercut policies pursued by states such as California.
