Facebook is negotiating with FTC to pay multibillion-dollar fine

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg testifies during a US House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing about Facebook on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, April 11, 2018.

Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are reportedly negotiating what could be a multibillion-dollar fine related to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, according to the Washington Post.

The two sides are still negotiating details, the paper reported, but a settlement penalty in the billions of dollars would be by far the largest fine ever imposed by the FTC against a technology company. The agency’s biggest fine against a tech company to date came in 2012, when Google agreed to pay a $22.5 million penalty due to its privacy practices.

The FTC began probing Facebook in March 2018 following reports that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had improperly accessed the data of 87 million Facebook users.

Facebook did not response to a request for comment.

Read the full report in the Washington Post.

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