Record Facebook fine won’t end scrutiny of the company

Some critics say FTC only gave social media company slap on wrist

San Francisco — Facebook survived its latest brush with U.S. privacy regulators, at the cost of a record $5 billion fine and other restrictions imposed by the Federal Trade Commission. But it’s far from home free.

While the company looks set to prosper in the wake of the FTC case, it faces a series of other investigations into its privacy practices in Europe and across the U.S. Concerns over the limits of the just-settled probe could fuel efforts to craft tougher privacy laws at the state and federal levels.

Facebook also is gearing up to fight investigations into its allegedly anticompetitive behavior, such as the social network’s habit of buying wouldbe rivals like Instagram and blatantly duplicating features introduced by competing services.

The Department of Justice opened a broad antitrust probe focused on technology companies on Tuesday. On Wednesday Facebook disclosed that it also faces a fresh FTC investigation into alleged anticompetitive behavior. It didn’t provide details of the scope or focus of the probe. Representatives of the FTC confirmed the antitrust investigation but offered no additional information.

The outcome of these investigations may well determine whether the world’s governments can actually rein in a transnational corporation that directly touches almost a third of the world’s population.

“There is a lot more to come on the regulatory front for Facebook,” said Debra Aho Williamson, analyst with the research firm eMarketer. To preempt this and do things on its own terms, Williamson said the company is “going to do whatever it can” to change its business model and change the way it gathers data.

The FTC penalties, viewed by some as a stunning rebuke to the social network, might well crush a smaller firm. But they seem unlikely to faze Facebook — the fine, for instance, amounts to less than 10 percent of Facebook’s annual revenue and not even a quarter of its annual profits. Some critics charge that the FTC didn’t deliver much more than a slap on the wrist.

“Facebook makes that much money in a couple of weeks,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a University of Virginia professor and author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” The company is free to “get back to business as usual,” he said.