Facebook's involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal that resulted in user data being inadvertently shared with the analytics company has been quite troublesome for the social network. In addition to the obvious trust issues that come from such an incident, after months of investigations, fines have been issued by different countries, including the ICO in the UK, as well as Italy.

Now, the United States Federal Trade Commission has settled on a $5 billion fine that the social network will have to pay as a result of the scandal, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal citing sources familiar with the matter. The investigation that led to this fine was focused on the fact that Facebook had committed to the FTC to do a better job at protecting users privacy back in 2012, and whether the Cambridge Analytica scandal was a violation of that commitment.

The settlement fine was approved by Republican commissioners, whereas Democratic commissioners voted against the settlement, defending that tougher oversight should be enforced. While some may argue that the fine isn't enough, it would still be, by far, the highest fine ever issued as a result of a violation of an FTC order. The previous record was a $22.5 million fine on Google.

According to the report, the case has now moved to the civil division of the Justice Department, where it will be reviewed before being finalized. Neither the FTC or Facebook commented on the report.