In what had otherwise been a strong day for US tech stocks, the Washington Post sent shares of Facebook reeling on Friday afternoon when it reported that the FTC is preparing to follow through with a “record-breaking” fine against the social media giant for violating an agreement with the regulator to safeguard the data privacy of its users.
The fine, which would be the first penalty Facebook has faced since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke nearly one year ago, won’t be anywhere near the trillion-dollar penalty that some speculated Facebook could face at the hands of the FTC, but it will be more than the $22.5 million that the FTC hit Google with back in 2012.
Facebook shares slumped on the news:
via RSS http://bit.ly/2FKYu1d Tyler Durden