[ad_1]
When Mark Zuckerberg In 2006, under Facebook, users of his news feed (exclusively college students) panicked at the thought that Facebook would automatically share their messages with friends. Even the digital natives were afraid to share a lot online at that time. But Zuckerberg waited a few days, explained the product, told its users to "breathe", and News Feed has become one of the most influential ideas of the 21st century.
Zuckerberg was born of this experience with a conviction that has since guided Facebook's problems: people want less privacy online than they think, and sometimes the only way to make them understand that it's pushing them to share more.
And it's like that he's been running Facebook for most of the next 13 years. Whenever Zuckerberg pushed the boundaries of privacy, he slapped himself and continued to launch new disruptive products. Push. Retreat. Repeat. Navigating these shoals is Zuckerberg's genius as much as his software engineering prowess.
Until now. When publishing the quarterly results on Wednesday, Facebook announced plans to pay a fine of $ 3 to $ 5 billion to the US Federal Trade Commission for violating the terms of the 2011 agreement with the US government. Agency to better protect the privacy of users. Investors, who were expecting a big fine and found that Facebook's core business continued to grow vigorously, reacted with relief, pushing the company's stock up more than 7% after normal business hours. meeting.
Facebook and the FTC have been stuck in negotiations for months and there had been news that the fine could be in the billions. But there was also news that Facebook could fight the fines. Wednesday marked the first time that Facebook publicly acknowledged the potential size of fines. Facebook said that he had not settled the case with the FTC. But he recorded a $ 3 billion charge in his quarterly profit, suggesting he plans to settle in and tries to control the story.
The fine is not going to hurt Facebook financially, but it's big enough to hurt. The $ 3 billion charge reduced first-quarter earnings by more than half; The fine will reduce the company's cash reserves by 7 to 11%.
Symbolically, the fine is extremely important. While Facebook has been pillory for two years on its role in the 2016 US presidential election, for the data leak that sparked the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and for a hack of last fall that has revealed the data of 50 million users, the company had never officially punished significantly.
Facebook had been hammered in the court of public opinion. This forced him to spend billions of dollars changing his way of doing business. And all those who had sent their stock market on a roller coaster. But the regulators had not weighed yet.
More worrisome perhaps, it will be the largest fine imposed by the FTC on a technology company, and is seen in the middle of a Republican administration that is very business-friendly. The European Union has imposed on Google a total fine of more than $ 8 billion three times over the past four years for various antitrust and privacy breaches. But under Presidents Trump and Obama, the US has taken a much less aggressive approach to regulating technology companies.
The largest prior fine imposed by the FTC on a technology company was $ 22.5 million for Google in 2012, accusing it of tampering with the privacy settings in the Apple Safari browser. Indeed, in the months immediately following the appearance of the Cambridge Analytica scandal last year, a debate in Washington took place over whether the agency would impose a fine.
But years of lax approaches to privacy and user data, as well as the role of technology companies as dominant media and communications companies in the 21st century, are becoming increasingly important. more outraged Americans – and their government has noticed.
More great cable stories
[ad_2]
Source link