Here’s How Washington Could Really Unfriend Facebook

Congress has warned Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook Inc. chief executive, that the era of self-regulation for social media is likely over, following Facebook’s data breach and Russia’s use of the social-media behemoth in its disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Zuckerberg agreed regulation is inevitable, even desirable. But how far it should go -- and the implications for his company’s $55 billion in projected revenue this year -- are far from settled. Here’s a rundown of what’s being considered.

The personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users, mostly in the U.S., was obtained by Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm that, among its other work, helped elect President Donald Trump. Some lawmakers and privacy experts are calling for more consumer protections, as they’ve done many times in the past after data leaks. Such legislation has gone nowhere in Congress, so what’s different this time?