Josh Hawley, Richard Blumenthal Call for ‘Forceful Accountability Measures’ Against Facebook

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) on Monday called for “forceful accountability measures” against Facebook in the wake of their various abuses of Americans’ private data.

Sens. Hawley and Blumenthal sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as the agency continues to negotiate a penalty for Facebook, urging the consumer protection agency to “to act swiftly to conclude its investigation of Facebook and to move to compel sweeping changes to end the social network’s pattern of misuse and abuse of personal data.”

The senators said that the FTC should “pursue deterrent monetary penalties and impose forceful accountability measures on Facebook, including limits on the use of consumer data, managerial responsibility for violations, and other structural remedies to stop further breaches of consumer trust.”

The two lawmakers referred to reports which suggest that Facebook has set aside $5 billion for a potential fine from the FTC, writing that the fine is a “bargain for Facebook,” and that a fine would amount to a “write-down for the company.”

Instead, Hawley and Blumenthal called for the FTC to “impose long-term limits on Facebook’s collection and use of personal information.”

“It should consider setting rules of the road on what Facebook can do with consumers’ private information, such as requiring the deletion of tracking data, restricting the collection of certain types of information, curbing advertising practices, and imposing a firewall on sharing private data between different products, including Facebook’s ad platform,” the lawmakers wrote.

The senators also asked the FTC to hold any Facebook employee–including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, responsible if they broke the law, writing, “the FTC considered naming Mark Zuckerberg in its previous consent order but ultimately declined not to do so. If the FTC finds that any Facebook executive knowingly broke the consent order or violated the law, it must name them in any further action.”

“The Facebook investigation will be a defining moment for the Commission. It must be seen as a strong protector of consumer privacy and begin to set out a new era of enforcement, or it will not be taken as a credible enforcer,” Sens. Hawley and Blumenthal concluded in their letter. “Action is overdue.”

Read Sens. Hawley and Blumenthal’s letter to the FTC here.