Facebook appoints its first chief compliance officer amid ongoing scrutiny

ViacomCBS' top compliance official, Henry Moniz, is moving to Facebook as the social media platform's first chief compliance officer, as Facebook faces scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers.

"We are pleased to confirm that Henry Moniz will be joining Facebook to lead our strategy and execution of compliance matters in the US and around the world," a Facebook spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday.

Moniz held senior compliance roles at Viacom starting in 2004. After its merger with CBS Corp in 2019, he became the chief compliance officer and chief audit executive of the combined company.

Business Insider reported earlier on Thursday that Moniz will join Facebook on February 8 and will report to Jennifer Newstead, the company's general counsel, as well as to the audit and risk oversight committee of Facebook's board of directors.

The development comes as Facebook and other big tech companies face regulatory scrutiny, with growing bipartisan consensus to hold them accountable for business practices.

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The US Federal Trade Commission and nearly every US state filed lawsuits against Facebook in December, saying it used a "buy or bury" strategy to snap up rivals and keep smaller competitors at bay.

The complaints accused Facebook of buying up rivals, focusing specifically on its previous acquisitions of photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.

The lawsuits were the biggest antitrust cases in a generation, comparable to the lawsuit against Microsoft Corp in 1998.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged last month that criticism of Facebook had hurt staff morale, saying public scrutiny "comes with the territory".