Facebook Inc. has hired its first chief compliance officer, as the social media company faces increasing scrutiny from regulators.
Henry Moniz, who has been the chief compliance officer and chief audit executive at media company ViacomCBS Inc., will join Facebook on Feb. 8 to lead the company’s global compliance team, according to Facebook. He will be the first person to hold the compliance chief title at Facebook.
Henry Moniz will be Facebook’s first chief compliance officer.
Photo: ViacomCBS
Mr. Moniz will report to Facebook’s general counsel, Jennifer Newstead. He will also report to a board committee overseeing audit and risk, Facebook said. The company said his appointment would help Facebook continue to enhance its global compliance and risk management and promote the highest standards of legal and ethical conduct at the company.
Facebook has had a compliance group, but never a dedicated chief compliance officer, the company said. The appointment comes as Facebook faces growing competition from its social-media peers and pressure from regulators and policy makers around the world on issues ranging from competition to privacy to taxes.
“The current regulatory environment demands strong compliance leadership, and Henry will play a key role in driving our ongoing commitment to continually strengthen our global compliance and risk management functions,” Ms. Newstead, Facebook’s general counsel, said in a statement.
A $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over privacy issues in 2019, for instance, required the creation of additional layers of compliance and required the company to restructure its approach to privacy oversight across the organization.
The company also faces new compliance challenges associated with stricter internet privacy rules in California, which go into effect in 2023. And data oversight compliance requirements continue under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.
Facebook, meanwhile, is battling antitrust allegations. The FTC and a group of attorneys general filed antitrust lawsuits against the company last year, essentially accusing the company of anticompetitive conduct over nearly a decade. Resolutions to those cases could come with additional regulatory burdens.
Mr. Moniz was previously the chief compliance officer and chief audit officer at Viacom before its merger with CBS. He also previously worked as a partner at law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP, which is now Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, and as an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami and Boston, Facebook said.
His last day at ViacomCBS will be Monday, according to a ViacomCBS spokeswoman.
Write to Mengqi Sun at [email protected]
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