The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday cleared Facebook’s proposed $19 billion dollar acquisition of mobile messaging startup WhatsApp. The deal is still subject to International regulatory approval, however, before being considered fully closed. On Thursday morning, the FTC sent letters to Facebook and WhatsApp reminding the two companies of their “obligations to protect the privacy of their users. As the FTC mentioned in its announcement, Facebook settled federal charges in 2011 that the social network had “deceived consumers by failing to keep its privacy promises,” and must now seek user approval on any changes to its privacy settings. “We’re pleased the FTC has completed it’s review and cleared our acquisition of Whatsapp,” a Facebook spokesperson told Re/code.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?
Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:
First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.
Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.
So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)
If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.
Yes, I'll give $5/month
Yes, I'll give $5/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and
Google Pay. You can also contribute via