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Facebook's Zuckerberg will reportedly shoulder personal responsibility for privacy issues

A settlement between the FTC and Facebook is expected on Wednesday.

Queenie Wong Former Senior Writer
Queenie Wong was a senior writer for CNET News, focusing on social media companies including Facebook's parent company Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Before joining CNET, she worked for The Mercury News in San Jose and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. A native of Southern California, she took her first journalism class in middle school.
Expertise I've been writing about social media since 2015 but have previously covered politics, crime and education. I also have a degree in studio art. Credentials
  • 2022 Eddie award for consumer analysis
Queenie Wong
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Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

James Martin/CNET

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be personally responsible for certifying the social network is following federal consumer privacy rules as part of a roughly $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission expected to be unveiled on Wednesday, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday evening.

Facebook is also scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

The deal will require Zuckerberg to state each quarter that Facebook is complying with the settlement terms, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The certification is to be based on Zuckerberg's personal knowledge, the report said.

Facebook declined to comment. The FTC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The broad strokes of the settlement have been rumored for months and Facebook has already set aside the money to pay the fine, which will be the largest levied against a tech company by the FTC. In 2012, the agency fined Google a record-setting $22.5 million. The investigation stemmed from last year's data scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica, a UK consultancy that harvested personal data from up to 87 million Facebook accounts without user permission.

The FTC was looking into whether the Cambridge Analytica scandal violated a previous legal agreement Facebook had struck with the agency.