Facebook In Trouble With EU Over Potentially Lies About $19B WhatsApp Acquisition

Facebook is already in a lot of trouble, what with the proliferation of fake news and German regulators considering punishment over inaction with regards to hate speech. Now, the biggest social media site in the world can add a new inquisition by EU regulators with regards to its acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014, which cost $19 billion. Regulators want to know if Facebook willingly lied with regards to its ability to data mine users at the time.

According to the press release that was released in relation to the inquiry that the EU regulators are conducting into the WhatsApp acquisition, Facebook might have lied to the European Commission when it filed for takeover in 2014. At the time, the social network did not disclose any information regarding its ability to siphon the data of users of the popular messaging app.

“When reviewing Facebook's planned acquisition of WhatsApp, the Commission looked, among other elements, at the possibility of Facebook matching its users' accounts with WhatsApp users' accounts,” the press release reads. “In its notification of the transaction in August 2014 and in a reply to a request for information, Facebook indicated to the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between the two companies' user accounts.”

The Commission is giving Facebook until January 31, 2017, to reply to its “Statement of Objection,” at which time judgment will be given. If Facebook is found guilty of omitting such an important detail about the acquisition, it will be fined up to 1 percent of its turnover, Forbes reports.

In 2015, that figure stood at about $18 billion. If so, the fine would account for about $180 of that total number.

Everything started with WhatsApp making the announcement that it will link the phone numbers of its users with the profiles they have on Facebook. This is something that Facebook explicitly denied they were able to do back in 2014.