US regulators have given the permission to impose a fine of $ 5 billion (about 34 thousand crores) on Facebook.
According to reports printed in the US media, the penalty has been imposed against the social media company to settle the ongoing investigations in the matter of privacy conflicts.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating a case in which political consultancy company Cambridge Anilica is alleged to have obtained data from 79 million users of Facebook fraudulently.
The sources told the US media that FTC has given this approval for the agreement with a majority of 3-2.
When the BBC asked Facebook and FTC on these media reports, they refused any comment.
What has happened so far
FTC launched this investigation against Facebook in March 2018 after the reports that Cambridge Analytica had obtained data from millions of Facebook users.
The investigation is focused on whether Facebook had violated the 2011 agreement in which it is compulsory for users to get their consent before receiving personal data.
The Republican commissioner and Democrats were opposing it.
Although this penalty is based on Facebook's estimate, in which he said earlier this year that he is estimating a fine of up to five billion dollars.
If this news is confirmed then this FTC will be the biggest penalty imposed on a technical company.
The company had told its investors in April that it has kept the majority separate for the penalties, which means that the company will not feel too much financial pressure from this penalty.
We do not yet know what further action will be taken against the company, such as monitoring of privacy, will be given more attention or even the company's chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg will have to undergo any action.
This settlement is equal to one-quarter of the company's annual earnings. This will revoke the criticism of those who say that this penalty is not enough.
What is the Criminal Analyst Case?
Cambridge Analytica was a political consultant British company, on which millions of Facebook users are charged for access to data and used to use Donald Trump for US presidential elections.
It is alleged that the company used the data to affect voters' views.
This data was acquired through a quiz, in which users had to answer some questions.
This quiz was made such that the participants used to collect the data of the users not only the data of the users but also their associated friends.
Facebook said that he believed that the data of 8.7 million users were incorrectly shared with Cambridge Analytica.
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