So the outcome of Facebook’s missteps over its privacy violation and abuse of hundreds of millions user data is just a financial repercussion. The Federal Trade Commission meted out a settlement with the largest social media platform in the world responsible for billions of users private information with a US$ 5 billion fine, that most people view as a slap on the wrist.
Maybe because, the monetary fine has already been accounted for by Facebook and maybe because money is no object for a company that already possesses a mountain full of it. Wall Street Journal reports that the settlement did not have the go ahead from all in the house with 2 democrats opposing the deal. However, the fine is the biggest ever levied upon a technology company.
Facebook has managed to evade countless of crimes that it has conducted over the years as the platform was used to manipulate elections, cause suicides, change courses of nations and was used to justify mass killings. If Facebook was a person, a certain World War II dictator would come to mind. Yet there is no clear indication on what restrictions are going to be put in place to incarcerate the behaviour of this American behemoth. No response was seen from Silicon Valley neither any immediate statements were forthcoming from Mark Zuckerberg. Clearly these were agreed upon arrangement between lobbyist and policy makers, to let the tech giant continue to operate and rake in the billions that also support US tax income. NO one in FTC will allow Facebook to fail or collapse, its too big and valuable to the American economy to fail.
IF you think the fine is going to change the way Facebook will operate you will have to think again, commercialisation against data protection is like water and oil, they cant coexist in the same space. How do you make money from user data without violating their rights? It doesn’t matter what agreement the user signs up or how much they agree for company’s to tap into, there will always be risks of abuse, Facebook is evident of this, numerous occasions it was tempted and fell prey to abusing its position. Knowing a single entity holding billions of users information and acquiring gazillions of data by the second, headed by a man-boy who is only interested in investor dividends is a scary thought, let alone now after their learning’s on how to handle regulators and the worst that can happen if they break the law again.
