Why 2019 is a key year for Facebook

Great news for Facebook: 2018 is over.

In this new year, the company's excuses will give way to its responsibility and fines or regulatory measures can be put into practice.

What does it mean, exactly? What kind of punishment can the social media giant face? The BBC explains what could happen to Facebook over the next 12 months:

May be punishable by a hefty fine in the EU …

The Irish Data Protection Commission announced in December that "(after reporting a fix that has resulted in the display of private photos of 6.8 million users.) The consequences are potentially huge – since it s? is the leading regulator for this sector in the European Union

"The focus will be on the security measures and procedures put in place by Facebook," says Kate Colleary, head of the IAPP., An international organization dedicated to the protection of private data. "If they were lacking, there may be an" administrative discovery "."

"An administrative discovery" would be, in D & C Other words, a possible decision of the Commission for the Protection of data with heavy fines. According to a regulation in force since last May, a company can be fined up to 4% of its global turnover – in the case of Facebook, this would represent more than 1.5 billion dollars.

… And in the United States as well.

That might not stop there. As investigations in Ireland progress, the US Federal Trade Commission also examines how Facebook signed an agreement signed in 2011. Overall, the agreement prompted Facebook to obtain explicit and informed consent for collection and sharing. The company has repeatedly stated that it has not failed to comply with the agreement, known as the "consent decree". In any case, the Federal Commission badyzes the case.

In the case of a violation identified in the terms, the penalties are in theory astronomical: the "consent decree" provides for fines

If a potential violation relates to the 80 million dollars in Facebook users in the United States, it reaches $ 3 trillion.

But it is unlikely that it will reach that point. The goal of the commission is not to break American companies, but to discourage inappropriate behavior. In an interview with the Washington Post, David Vladeck, a former consumer protection official for the same commission, said the fines should rise to $ 1 billion.

"The agency (referring to the commission) message […] takes its consent decree very seriously," he told the newspaper.

Can be dismembered

One view that seems to have the support of multi-party politics – in different countries of the world – is that Facebook has become very big and very powerful.

"We have a lot of competitors," said Mark Zuckerberg during his appearance before the US Senate in April 2018. But he did not mention any of these competitors. With WhatsApp and Instagram being part of the company, there is actually no alternative to Facebook – and if it were, the company would probably buy it.

A specific group, Freedom from Facebook, asks the company. to be divided into four: the main Facebook network, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. It also asks that it be easier for users to migrate their data from one network to another if they want to disconnect from one of them.

Facebook, according to the newspaper New Stateman, recruits experts in competition law,

The company also hired a senior British politician – Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister – to head the Communications in October .

In conversations with reporters, Clegg stated that he would focus his efforts on the idea of ​​"co-regulation", that is, working with governments to create regulations that are technically and ethically sound.

But he was criticized, one of Ahmed Banafa. , privacy specialist at San Jose State University, California, says the authorities "should act independently (vis-à-vis Facebook) because they take care of us, citizens" I do not want vote for the regulation of Facebook, "said Mark in April.