How the commission chooses to respond to Facebook’s repeated abuses will determine whether it is willing or able to promote competition and protect consumers. If the commission does conclude that Facebook has violated the consent order, how it fixes this problem through a legal remedy will be a test of its effectiveness. The commission has the authority to impose substantial fines on Facebook. Given that the corporation had more than $55 billion in revenue in 2018 alone, even a fine in the low billions of dollars will amount to a slap on the wrist, a mere cost of doing business.

Moreover, because Facebook is a repeat offender, it is critical that the commission’s response is strong enough to prevent future violations. America’s laws are not suggestions. When a company has repeatedly shown contempt for its legal commitments, the remedy must change how the company operates. Enforcement agencies can do this through deep reforms of the company’s structure. This includes removing members of the company’s board, or even top executives, along with other changes to the company’s business model to address dysfunction at the top.

The F.T.C. can also pursue other ways to fix this problem. For example, after German antitrust enforcers found that Facebook abused its dominant market position, it required Facebook to stop combining different sources of its users’ data without their consent.

But the commission should not stop there.

There is also mounting evidence of anticompetitive conduct by Facebook that may warrant scrutiny by federal antitrust enforcers. For example, the social media goliath has reportedly systematically spied on its rivals, giving it valuable information on how people used competitive products.

Facebook’s predatory acquisition strategy has also arguably resulted in fewer innovative services. When it bought TBH, a polling app popular with teenagers, Facebook announced that the app would still operate independently and under its own brand. Less than a year later, Facebook scuttled it due to “low usage.”

Facebook also appears to have used its dominance to cripple other competitive threats by cutting them off from its massive network. In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, personally approved the company’s decision to block Vine, a fast-growing rival, from a critical Facebook feature, to the advantage of its own online video service.