Facebook has reportedly been hit with a $US5 billion fine in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal last year, but critics still aren’t happy.
It was reported by both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, that Facebook and regulating body the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached the settlement over Facebook’s repeated privacy violations, thus ending the commission’s investigation into the social media platform, which began in March 2018.
The vote was 3-2 in favour of approving the fine, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Despite the fine being one of the biggest of its kind, many were quick to point out its relative insignificance for a company the size of Facebook.
With Facebook revealing it had made $15 billion in quarterly revenue in its latest earnings report, Democratic Rep. David Cicilline described the punishment as nothing more than a “slap on a wrist”.
It is unclear whether there is any additional punishment for Facebook adjacent to the fine.
Facebook’s stock price actually went up after the fine was announced.
the fact that fb shares surged instead of sank on the FTC news is the story https://t.co/SztA1iAyOg pic.twitter.com/qDrzaR8J4Q
— rat king 🐀 (@MikeIsaac) July 12, 2019
