The Latest Facebook Scandal Is Also a Crisis for the FTC

That Facebook can’t stay out of the headlines is not just a crisis for Facebook. It’s also a crisis for the Federal Trade Commission—indeed, it’s a “credibility-check moment.” Every day that passes in which the consent order is not enforced against Facebook adds to speculation that something is deeply broken at the agency. Moreover, the tech firms want the FTC to be named as their sole regulator, pre-empting stronger action by states and their attorneys general to protect privacy. Given its record of tech-friendly enforcement, it’s not surprising that’s who the platforms want looking over their shoulder. But if it can’t even enforce a consent order—a set of promises Facebook itself agreed to abide by—then it will be quite clear the FTC isn’t up to the task of protecting our economy, or our democracy, from the depredations of Big Tech.

[Hal Singer is a managing director at Econ One Research, a senior fellow at George Washington’s Institute of Public Policy, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.]