US: Facebook says it’s open to new regulation

Facebook, which has been under fire for months over data scandals, expressed openness to new regulation.

According to a report in Reuters citing Facebook’s public policy manager Karim Palant, the executive said the social media giant is “open to meaningful regulation.” His comments came following calls by lawmakers in the U.K. for large tech companies to have to meet a code of ethics to prevent fake news from spreading and for preventing users from abusing the platforms. “We are open to meaningful regulation and support the committee’s recommendation for electoral law reform,” Reuters quoted Palant as saying. Facebook is “not the same company” even a year ago, with the social media giant already instituting a lot of changes, the executive noted.

The comments from Palant come on the heels of reporting by The Wall Street Journal that the company could pay a multi-billion dollar fine to the Federal Trade Commission to settle an inquiry by the regulator into its privacy practices. An exact amount hadn’t been agreed upon as of last week, but the fine is expected to be the largest to ever be imposed by the FTC on a technology company.  Google in 2012 paid $22.5 million to the FTC to settle an inquiry into how it handles data.

In addition to the inquiry by the FTC, Facebook is facing increased scrutiny by regulators around the globe and calls for more regulation of it and other large tech companies. It has also prompted a backlash among some customers who have vow