Today, Public Knowledge sent letters urging the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, House Judiciary, and state attorneys general to evaluate whether Facebook’s past acquisitions and what appear to be anti-competitive practices violate antitrust law.

Today, Public Knowledge announces that it will not accept funding from Facebook for any of the organization’s programs or initiatives. The decision follows a June 1 meeting between Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and civil rights leaders to discuss the company’s choice to leave up without moderation comments made by President Trump, including one in which he posted, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” in reference to protests over George Floyd’s death. Twitter, meanwhile, labeled the content with a disclaimer that it “glorified violence.”

Today, 50 states and territories announced they are opening an antitrust investigation into Google and its parent company, Alphabet. Alphabet also confirmed last week that it is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Eight states and DC also announced last week that they are beginning an antitrust investigation into Facebook as well.

Today, Facebook confirmed during its Q2 earnings call and in its quarterly report that the Federal Trade Commission notified the company in June that the agency has opened an antitrust investigation into Facebook. An FTC investigation means there is particular conduct by the company that the agency is interested in, and that the agency is examining that conduct to determine if it violates antitrust law.

Today, the Federal Trade Commission released details of its $5 billion settlement with Facebook over the company’s repeated violations of a 2012 consent decree, which includes privacy violations such as the Cambridge Analytica incident.

Reports indicate that the Federal Trade Commission recently voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook over the company’s repeated privacy violations, including the Cambridge Analytica incident. The FTC is expected to unveil the terms of the fine — including possible conditions — once the Department of Justice has finalized the settlement.

Facebook announced yesterday that it expects to pay a fine up to $5 billion dollars over accusations that the company violated its 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission over consumer privacy on the social media platform. The company also said there can be no assurances as to the terms of resolution of the investigation.

Yesterday, reports surfaced that Facebook formed data-sharing partnerships with device makers, enabling companies like Amazon and Apple to access Facebook users’ and their friends’ data — without those friends’ consent. Reports indicate that the shared data includes data pertaining to users who expressly denied Facebook permission to share their information with any third parties.

Recently, reports surfaced that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that supported President Trump’s campaign, maintained copies of private data for about 50 million Facebook users without the majority of these users’ knowledge or consent. Public Knowledge finds Facebook’s lack of consumer privacy protection particularly egregious in this case and urges Congress to protect consumers by returning control of personal data to Americans.

The last few days have highlighted the complete inadequacy of our political advertising rules in an era when even the President of the United States has no hesitation in blasting the world with unproven conspiracy theories about political rivals using both traditional broadcast media and social media. We cannot ignore the urgency of this for […]