Facebook to be fined $5bn over Cambridge scandal

The Federal Trade Commission has approved a $5bn (£4bn) settlement with Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, both citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, reported Friday afternoon that the settlement was approved by a 3-2 vote that broke along party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. The justice department is expected make a final approval of the fine.

The $5bn fine would be the largest ever levied by the Federal Trade Commission against a technology company is in line with what the company said it expected to pay in its quarterly report in April.

Facebook's shares rose almost 2pc on the news, which provides certainty as to the scale of the financial hit the social network is set to take over the scandal.

It is thought that the settlement will also include other conditions on how Facebook manages its users' privacy, but the details are not known. The FTC opened its investigation in March last year, amid concerns that Facebook had allowed British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access the data of 87m users, most of whom had not consented.

The firm obtained the data via 270,000 users who used an app called This is Your Digital Life, allowing access to their friends' data in the process.

Last year Facebook admitted that it exposed the data and said it would inform users. $5bn is around a quarter of Facebook's 2018 profits, though it has cash reserves of $45bn.The company is too big to oversee.

The previous record settlement was a $22.5m fine against Google, imposed in 2012.