First, there's the children's financial exploitation class action lawsuit. In this case, kids as young as five-years-old were unwittingly using their parents credit cards over and over in Facebook hosted games such as Angry Birds. Facebook did not ask for authorization or a password to enable the additional charges. Facebook called it "friendly fraud."

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One teen spent $6,545 in 17 days, which Facebook refused to refund. Facebook continued the practice for four years after the lawsuit was filed, finally changing its policies when the court ruled against it in 2016. Facebook's request to seal the court records was granted.

 

Then in 2018 the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) petitioned the court to release the sealed documents. As a result the court released 135 documents including many internal Facebook memos, emails, and assorted assessments. These documents formed the basis of an article published by CIR on January 24, 2019.

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U.S. Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), read the CIR story and wrote to Mark Zuckerberg asking for an explanation of the situation. Facebook's reply was indirect and off point. As a result, the senators referred the matter to the FTC for investigation.