Sen. Ron Wyden, a leading voice on digital privacy, is calling for federal regulators to hold Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg personally liable for “repeated violations of Americans’ privacy.”
Wyden, D-Ore., made the request in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday following reports the agency is negotiating a settlement that could include a multi-billion dollar fine of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company over mishandling of users’ personal information.
“Any settlement with Facebook must hold Mr. Zuckerberg individually accountable or his flagrant, repeated violations of Americans’ privacy will continue,” Wyden told the commission’s five members.
Facebook has found itself under heightened scrutiny by regulators worldwide after the discovery that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that did work for President Trump’s 2016 campaign, improperly harvested information from 87 million Facebook users. The trade commission began reviewing in March 2018 whether the company had violated a 2011 consent decree requiring it to improve data-privacy practices.
In addition to the breach involving Cambridge Analytica, Facebook admitted last week a mishap involving millions of Instagram users’ passwords.
Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook and is its majority shareholder, has told Congress that he should be held accountable for any missteps. “I started Facebook,” he said in a hearing last year. “I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
Zuckerberg penned an op-ed this month calling for more government regulation of the Internet, and on Monday, Facebook announced it has hired the State Department’s top lawyer to manage its legal affairs.
Such efforts, however, shouldn’t keep the trade commission from exercising its power to “hold individuals responsible for the actions of a corporate entity where the individual participated directly in the deceptive practices or acts or had authority to control them,” Wyden said.
“Given Mr. Zuckerberg’s deceptive statements, his personal control over Facebook, and his role in approving key decisions related to the sharing of user data, the FTC can and must hold Mr. Zuckerberg personally responsible for these continued violations,” Wyden said. “The FTC must also make clear the significant and material penalties that will apply to both Facebook the corporation and Mr. Zuckerberg the individual should any future violations occur.”
