The Federal Trade Commission has voted to fine Facebook a record-breaking $5 billion following a long-running investigation into the tech giant’s repeated failure’s to protect its users’ privacy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

With the motion passed by a vote of 3-2, FTC’s decision broke party lines, with the Republican majority voicing support of the fine, while Democratic commissioners voice objections.

Facebook was fined in connection over its deal with now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica where private information belonging to 87 million people was shared inappropriately.

The $5bn fine is the largest penalty against a tech firm, but shares in the company jumped up by 1.8 percent following the announcement - as investors expected the punishment could have been more severe.

The Federal Trade Commission has voted to approve a fine of about $5 billion for Facebook over privacy violations

Several Democrats claimed the punishment was a slap on the wrist.

Democrat representative David Cicilline, who is chair of a congressional antitrust panel, called the $5 billion penalty 'a Christmas present five months early'.

He said: 'This fine is a fraction of Facebook's annual revenue. It won't make them think twice about their responsibility to protect user data.'

The tech giant's revenue for the first quarter of 2019 was $15.1bn, while the company is worth an estimated $585billion.

The next stages will be handled by the Justice Department’s civil division, though for now it remains unclear how long it will take to finalize.

According to WSJ sources, the vote will be reviewed by the Justice Department, as required by protocol, but it’s incredibly the verdict will be reversed.

For now, the specifics of the settlement remain largely unknown, except for the figure which is believed to be in the region of $5 billion.

Once finalized, the fine will become the largest ever levied on a tech company, but it won’t make much of a dent in Facebook’s reserves, which registered more than $56 billion in revenue last year alone.

But the deal may also include other government restrictions on how Facebook handles and regulates user privacy.

Regardless, investors did not seem overly concerned with the news - and Facebook shares finished the day up 1.8 per cent, at $204.87.

The divide between Republicans and Democrats on the matter was irked in large by the latter pushing for tougher oversight of Facebook in addition to the fine.

The FTC’s investigation into Facebook began more than a year ago, after the data of millions of users of the social media site wound up in the possession of Cambridge Analytica, a firm assisting with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Once finalized, the fine will become the largest ever levied on a tech company, but it won’t make much of a dent in Facebook’s reserves, which registered more than $56 billion in revenue last year alone

The FTC’s investigation into Facebook began more than a year ago, after the data of millions of users of the social media site wound up in the possession of Cambridge Analytica, a firm assisting with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign

The Cambridge Analytica breach came as one of many leaks for the social-media giant, only adding to the FTC’s grievances.

It also acknowledged giving big tech companies like Amazon and Yahoo extensive access to users' personal data, in effect exempting them from its usual privacy rules

In response, Facebook has since repeatedly vowed to do a better job corralling its users’ data, but fell short of FTC expectations.

Facebook and other prominent tech companies finds themselves under increasing scrutiny in Washington DC.

On Thursday, the capital held a ‘social media summit’ at the White House where President Trump voiced particular disdain about Silicon Valley and its perceived disfavoring of conservatives.

Facebook wasn’t invited to the event, neither were other tech companies.

The Zuckerburg founded site claim to police their platforms regardless of political ideology.