Facebook has been one of the most controversial social media on the internet. The popular social media, Facebook came under the fire because due to the accusation of using biometric data without the knowledge or consent of the users.

While the investigation is going on, if social media is found violating laws in the US that accused its subsidiary of Instagram then Facebook could end up paying a hefty fine of $500 billion. In the state court, the lawsuit was filed on Aug. 10 in Redwood City, California, which was reported by the DailyMail.

The lawsuit filed accused the Instagram platform of using a tool that allows identifying people with the help of facial recognition. Considering the terms of service of Instagram, the platform admits that it does consist of a feature that allows facial recognition that can be turned on by the users.

“If we introduce face-recognition technology to your Instagram experience, we will let you know first, and you will have control over whether we use this technology for you,” says Instagram. However, according to the accusation, Instagram automatically scans the users’ face who don’t even have an account on Instagram but appears on other users’ posts.

That’s how Instagram has collected biometrics data of people who did not agree to the platform’s terms of service, according to the lawsuit. On the other hand, the Facebook spokesperson said that it is absolutely a baseless suit and Instagram is not using the services for face recognition that is offered on Facebook.

Although this is not the first time when Facebook had to pay fine for using facial recognition technology. Previously, Facebook had to pay $650 million to settle a class-action lawsuit. For more updates, keep watching this space.