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Thursday 25 July 2019

Record Facebook fine won’t end scrutiny of the company

Continued from Front change its business model
and change the way it
The Department of Jus- gathers data.
tice opened a broad an- The FTC penalties, viewed
titrust probe focused on by some as a stunning re-
technology companies on buke to the social network,
Tuesday. On Wednesday might well crush a smaller
Facebook disclosed that firm. But they seem unlikely
it also faces a fresh FTC in- to faze Facebook — the
vestigation into alleged fine, for instance, amounts
anticompetitive behavior. to less than 10% of Face-
It didn’t provide details of book’s annual revenue
the scope or focus of the and not even a quarter of
probe. Representatives of its annual profits. Some crit-
the FTC confirmed the an- ics charge that that the FTC
titrust investigation but of- didn’t deliver much more
fered no additional infor- than a slap on the wrist.
mation. “Facebook makes that
The outcome of these much money in a couple of
investigations may well weeks,” said Siva Vaidhya-
determine whether the nathan, a University of Vir-
world’s governments can ginia professor and author
actually rein in a transna- of “Antisocial Media: How
tional corporation that di- Facebook Disconnects Us
rectly touches almost a and Undermines Democ- Federal Trade Commission FTC Chairman Joe Simons speaks during a news conference about
third of the world’s popula- racy.” The company is free Facebook settlement at FTC headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2019.
tion. to “get back to business as Associated Press
“There is a lot more to usual,” he said. 2018. On Wednesday, tively “a get-out-of-jail free encrypted communica-
come on the regulatory Wall Street seems to agree. Facebook’s market value card for Facebook.” The tions. The details are scant.
front for Facebook,” said Facebook’s stock price hovered around $575 bil- deal absolves Facebook of But it shows that the com-
Debra Aho Williamson, an- climbed higher Wednes- lion — roughly $40 billion any consumer-protection pany is thinking years into
alyst with the research firm day after the deal was an- above where it stood be- claims prior to June 12 of the future even as regula-
eMarketer. To pre-empt nounced. The company is fore the news of the Cam- this year, a highly unusual tors are investigating and
this and do things on its worth much more than it bridge abuses broke. step that effectively wipes punishing it for years-past
own terms, Williamson said was when its Cambridge Ashkan Soltani, a former the slate clean where violations.
the company is “going Analytica privacy scandal FTC chief technologist, said known historical privacy As part of the FTC’s settle-
to do whatever it can” to erupted back in March the settlement was effec- violations are concerned. ment with Facebook, Zuck-
Soltani and other crit- erberg will have to person-
ics also note that the FTC ally certify his company’s
settlement barely touches compliance with its privacy
Facebook’s underlying programs. The FTC said that
business practices, which false certifications could
rely on the collection and expose him to civil or crimi-
analysis of its users’ activi- nal penalties. But the settle-
ties and personal details to ment did not hold Zucker-
fuel the company’s lucra- berg personally liable for
tive advertising machine. In the past violations, as some
its formal legal complaint, had expected.
the FTC used the word In a Facebook post
“deceptive” 14 times to Wednesday, Zuckerberg
describe Facebook’s prac- vowed to “make some
tices and policies. major structural changes to
“There is a lot more to how we build products and
come on the regulatory run this company” as a re-
front for Facebook,” said sult of the settlement. “We
Debra Aho Williamson, an- have a responsibility to pro-
alyst with the research firm tect people’s privacy. We
eMarketer. To pre-empt already work hard to live
this and do things on its up to this responsibility, but
own terms, Williamson said now we’re going to set a
the company is “going completely new standard
to do whatever it can” to for our industry.”
change its business mod- In a similar tone, FTC Chair-
el and the way it gathers man Joe Simons, speaking
data. at a news conference, said
Facebook has already sig- the settlement is “unprec-
naled that this is coming. edented in the history of
Earlier this year, CEO Mark the FTC” and is designed
Zuckerberg unveiled a new “to change Facebook’s
“privacy focused” vision for entire privacy culture to
the company that centers decrease the likelihood of
on private messaging and continued violations.”q