The Federal Trade Commission has fined Facebook a record $5 billion related to claims that the social media behemoth deceived its users about the privacy of their personal information in the fallout from the 2016 election-related Cambridge Analytica scandal.
As part of the agreement, Facebook will set up an independent privacy committee, which regulators said would remove what they called CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "unfettered control" over decisions that affect user privacy. A Facebook attorney said in a statement that the company's, quote, "handling of this matter was a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who depend on us to protect their data."
Two members of the five-member FTC, however, said they didn't think the settlement went far enough, with Commissioner Rohit Chopra writing in a dissenting opinion that the deal, quote, "places no meaningful restrictions on Facebook's ability to collect, share, and use personal information." The other dissenting commissioner said the FTC should have begun litigation against Facebook and Zuckerberg.