People have been calling for big tech companies like Facebook to be regulated for quite awhile. It looks like this story involving the misuse of personal information might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

USA Today:

The Federal Trade Commission is probing Facebook over potential misuse of the personal information of as many as 50 million Facebook users by Trump-connected data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook is also being investigated by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Healey, who said they sent a demand letter Tuesday.

And Facebook officials met with U.S. lawmakers Tuesday and are scheduled to meet with them again Wednesday to brief them on Cambridge Analytica.

The social media giant said Friday it suspended Cambridge Analytica from operating on its platforms as it investigated whether it failed to delete information it received through an academic researcher.

What’s ridiculous is how they’re trying to make this out to be a scandal relating to Donald Trump. It really has nothing to do with Trump. The Trump campaign paid Cambridge Analytica to do data mining work for them. This is a standard practice that all political campaigns have been doing for quite awhile. The controversy stems from Cambridge Analytica potentially obtaining information that users did not give Facebook permission to turn over to third parties.

The British press also caught one of Cambridge Analytica’s executives talking about bribes, honeypots and compromising politicians with hookers. This is another aspect of the story that’s getting attention.

It’s hard to say how much of what took place was illegal. There’s probably a greater chance that laws were broken over in the European Union versus the United States. That’s because they have stronger Internet privacy laws.

But regardless of the specifics, the main takeaway to this is that it should lead to the government finally starting to regulate these tech companies. People are already fed up with these social media sites banning anyone who has a political view to the right of Karl Marx.

it’s also worth noting that the stock market doesn’t think this looks good for Facebook. The stock has plunged since this story broke. There’s also calls for Mark Zuckerberg to testify in front of Congress.

We’ll see where this goes. This scandal is good for us as it spotlights all the chicanery that Facebook and big tech is involved in.