Between the lines
Facebook has already settled twice with the FTC over privacy violations. The first violation dates back to 2012, alleging Facebook misled users about how much control they had over their personal data. Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion in fines to remedy those allegations in 2019. That order was finalized in 2020.
In 2020, Facebook settled for $5 billion in civil penalties with the FTC after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Under the settlement, the tech giant agreed to independent assessments of its updated privacy program.
The latest alleged violations came forth after a review by an independent assessor that found “several gaps and weaknesses in Facebook’s privacy program” that posed “substantial risks to the public,” according to the FTC.
Responding to the FTC’s proposal, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone called it a “political stunt,” accusing the agency of attempting to “usurp the authority of Congress to set industrywide standards.”
Bottom line
Meta has 30 days to challenge these new findings, after which the agency will decide whether updating the 2020 order “is in the public interest or justified by changed conditions of fact or law,” according to the FTC.