Facebook to pay a $5 billion fine
"Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission have agreed to a $5 billion settlement"
Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission have agreed to a $5 billion settlement in the investigation over the social network's questionable practices in handling user data which now needs to be approved by the Justice Department.
Investigation started back in 2018 after it was revelaed that user data Facebook shared with analytics company Cambridge Analytica was used to influence the 2016 presidential campaign in the U.S. The Cambridge Analytica scandal involved a political consulting firm accessing the private Facebook data of some 87 million users. Allegedly, this data was used to help influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. With that other controversial practice was also revealed like Instagram passwords being stored in plain text. Facebook already separated $3 billion in April of this year in anticipation of the fine. However, it looks like it will need to allocate $2 billion more.
Biplav Gachhadar
