The FTC approves a Facebook settlement of about $ 5 billion

A settlement should include other government restrictions on how Facebook treats user privacy. The additional terms of the settlement could not be immediately learned.

A spokeswoman for the FTC declined to comment, just like a Facebook spokeswoman.

On April 24, Facebook said it expects to spend $ 5 billion to settle the investigation. A resolution was bogged down by a split between Republicans and Democrats within the FTC, Democrats demanding tighter control from the social media giant.

The FTC's investigation began more than a year ago after personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that had worked on the 2016 campaign. President Trump. The FTC's investigation was to determine whether this fault violated the 2012 consent decree with the agency in which Facebook agreed to better protect the privacy of users.

Since the Cambridge Analytica case, other errors in the protection of privacy have been revealed, which has aggravated Facebook's headaches.

The settlement would easily exceed the previous record penalty for violation of an FTC order, a $ 22.5 million fine against Google Inc. in 2012. The commission has limited powers to impose fines for the first time but has great latitude to punish repeat offenders.

Facebook shares gained just over 1% in the news, despite a $ 2 billion increase over what the company had reserved for settlement.

The decision of the party line could expose Republicans to Democrat critics and mitigate the impact for the FTC, which has sometimes been criticized for its lack of respect for privacy. After Facebook set aside billions of dollars to pay the fine, some Democrats have called the amount too low.

Facebook and other major technologies are in the spotlight in Washington, including at a "social media summit" organized by the White House Thursday, in which President Trump repeatedly criticized Silicon Valley for its injustice toward conservatives. Facebook was not invited to participate, any more than other high-tech companies, who have already said they control their platforms regardless of political ideology.

Facebook is also preparing for a potential review of its competitive practices. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the Justice Department was preparing for an anti-trust investigation of

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Google and has authority to review

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while the FTC took jurisdiction for Facebook's possible antitrust probes and

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.

Facebook is also gearing up for congressional hearings next week on its cryptocurrency project, Libra, which has sparked President Trump's and many regulators' skepticism.

The privacy regulation came as the FTC was facing increasing political pressure to take a tougher stance against Facebook and potentially other technology companies at a time when European regulators were considered the world's greatest policeman in the technology market.

With the dollar amount approved this week, the FTC was fined more than the European Union could have requested under its privacy law.

Facebook's first agreement with the FTC, finalized in 2012, resolved the commission's allegations that the company repeatedly breached its promises of confidentiality vis-à-vis site users, including by sharing their data with advertisers and other third parties.

For example, Facebook-based applications, such as TV questionnaires, could find the status of a user's relationship or photos, the FTC said at the time, although Facebook said that He would not share unnecessary personal details with the applications. Facebook has resolved the case in part by promising not to mislead users.

In 2017, Facebook said that a personality prediction app had collected data from tens of millions of users and had shared it with a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. The FTC has reopened the case, this time with its strong power to punish repeat offenders.

It is unlikely that this big fine satisfies the most virulent critics of Facebook, much like the multi-billion dollar fines against the big banks after the 2008 financial crisis have hardly reduced the wrath of Wall Street.

Lawmakers from both parties are working on new privacy rules for big tech companies, while many Democratic presidential candidates want to investigate Facebook's market power. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) Calls for the dissolution of the company, a position recently supported by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

John McKinnon contributed to this article.

Write to Emily Glazer at [email protected] and Ryan Tracy at [email protected]