After years of seeming disinterest and half-steps, regulators on four continents are preparing for a long-awaited showdown with Facebook. Mostly, they have the same goal: to change the social media company’s behaviour. Figuring out how is the hard part. Members of the Federal Trade Commission in the US are weighing what sorts of constraints they could put on Facebook’s business practices, but there is currently a lack of agreement on those terms within the F.T.C., according to two people familiar with the talks. This week, Facebook said it expected the agency would impose a fine of $3 billion to $5 billion (USD) for violations of a privacy settlement in 2011. That would be the highest penalty in the United States against a tech company. In Europe, officials in Britain, France, Germany and Ireland are scrutinising the social media company’s practices. Governments in Australia, India, New Zealand and Singapore have passed or are considering new restrictions on social media.

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