New Delhi: Facebook, the US-based social media giant is not immune to punishment or penalty. It has been fined and penalized on multiple occasions for alleged abuse of data, propagating illegal content and violation of privacy laws in some countries.
Rather, the tech giant has come under global scrutiny from governments around the world. Facebook’s recent tussle with Australian government is no secret and following this, it even announced about $1 billion investment in partnership with news organizations.
India has also laid down a set of rules to regulate the social media platforms and OTT platforms, failing which they will invite action.
A look at Fine imposed on Facebook across the globe:
1. UK fines Facebook £500,000 for failing to protect user data – (25 October 2018)
The ICO found that the personal information of at least 1 million UK users was among harvested data and was consequently put at risk of further misuse.
2. Italian regulator fines Facebook £10m for misleading users – (7 December 2018)
The Italian regulator found that Facebook had breached articles 21, 22, 24 and 25 of the country’s consumer code
3. Facebook fined for 3.9 million Pound – (23 January 2019)
The consumer finance journalist Martin Lewis dropped his lawsuit against Facebook over its repeated failure to prevent scam adverts from using his name and image, after the company agreed to donate £3.9m to set up an anti-scam project with Citizens Advice and launch a UK-specific one-click reporting tool.
4. Facebook settles lawsuits alleging discriminatory ads – (19 March 2019)
From November 2016 to September 2018, Facebook was hit with five discrimination lawsuits and charges from civil rights and labor organisations, workers and individuals.
5. Facebook Pays Russia $50K Fine For Not Localizing User Data – (12 April 2019)
Facebook was failing to comply with a data privacy law and store data of Russian Facebook users on servers located inside Russia
6. Facebook bug exposed private photos of 6.8 million users – (10 May 2019)
Facebook announced today another security incident affecting millions of its customers. This time, the company said that a bug in one of its APIs exposed the private photos of nearly 6.8 million users.
7. Italy stings Facebook with $1.1M fine for Cambridge Analytica data misuse – (28 June 2019)
The Italian regulator says 57 Italian Facebook users downloaded Dr Aleksandr Kogan‘s Thisisyourdigitallife quiz app, which was the app vehicle used to scoop up Facebook user data en masse — with a further 214,077 Italian users’ also having their personal information processed without their consent as a result of how the app could access data on each user’s Facebook friends.
8. Germany fines Facebook for under-reporting complaints – (2 July 2019)
Under-reporting complaints about illegal content on its social media platform in breach of the country’s law on internet transparency
9. FTC Slaps Facebook With $5 Billion Fine, Forces New Privacy Controls – (24 July 2019)
Facebook flagrantly violated the FTC’s 2012 order by deceiving its users and allowing pay-for-play data harvesting by developers. … The settlement imposes no meaningful changes to the company’s structure or financial incentives
10. Facebook to Pay $100 Million for Misleading Investors About the Risks It Faced From Misuse of User Data – (24 July 2019)
container top-contrib”>The SEC’s complaint alleges that Facebook discovered the misuse of its users’ information in 2015, but did not correct its existing disclosure for more than two years
11. Facebook and Twitter appeared for using their immense resources to manipulate the judicial system – (26 July 2019)
Facebook and Twitter appeared for using their immense resources to manipulate the judicial system in a manner that deprives two indigent young men facing life sentences of their constitutional right to defend themselves
12. Turkey fines Facebook $282,000 over privacy breach – (3 October 2019)
Violation of data protection laws which affected nearly 300,000 people
13. Settlement against a lawsuit alleging that Facebook had inflated viewership metrics – (8 November 2019)
Settlement against a lawsuit alleging that Facebook had inflated viewership metrics, which skewed decisions for purchasing ad time on the platform. Despite the settlement, Facebook maintains that the suit is ‘without merit’.
14. Facebook fined $1.65 million by Brazil for improperly sharing data of 443,000 users – (31 December 2019)
Facebook improperly shared users data in a case linked to the global Cambridge Analytica scandal
15. Facebook fined $650 million for collecting facial recognition data inappropriately – (30 January 2020)
Facebook collected user biometric data without consent
16. In Settlement, Facebook To Pay $52 Million To Content Moderators With PTSD Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email – (12 May 2020)
Thousands of current and former contract workers who viewed and removed graphic and disturbing posts on the social media platform for a living, and consequently suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a settlement agreement announced between the tech giant and lawyers for the moderators.
17. Canada Facebook fined $6.5m over ‘false’ privacy claims – (19 May 2020)
A settlement over the company’s handling of users’ personal information between August 2012 and June 2018. Facebook’s privacy claims were not consistent with the way it shared personal data of users with some third-party developers.
18. South Korea fines Facebook $6.1 mn for sharing users’ info without consent – (26 November 2020)
Facebook shared data of at least 3.3 million out of its 18 million users in Korea to other companies without their consent between May 2012 to June 2018
19. Facebook fined 7 mn euros in Italy over improper data use – (17 February 2021)
It had found that Facebook Inc. and its subsidiary Facebook Ireland Ltd. did not implement a 2018 order requiring them to dismiss an incorrect practice in the use of users’ data, nor did they publish a corrective declaration requested by the watchdog
20. Facebook to pay $650 million settlement over US privacy dispute – (1 March 2021)
Illegally collected biometric data to identify faces in violation of a 2008 Illinois privacy law
