March 13 (Reuters) - Meta cannot stop the U.S.

Federal Trade Commission from reopening a probe into its

Facebook unit's privacy practices for now, a U.S. appeals court

ruled, despite Meta's objections that it already paid a $5

billion fine and agreed to a range of safeguards.

The FTC wants to tighten an existing 2020 Facebook privacy

settlement to ban profiting from minors' data and expand curbs

on facial recognition technology. The agency has accused Meta of

misleading parents about protections for children.

The decision late on Tuesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals

for the D.C. Circuit was a setback for Meta, which had asked the

court to freeze the FTC case while it pursues a separate lawsuit

challenging the FTC's inquiry on constitutional grounds.

The appeals court said the FTC's stated privacy concerns

"implicate important public interests" and that Meta would have

an opportunity to contest any final action by the agency.

Meta in a statement said the court's order "does not address

the substance of the FTC's allegations, which are without

merit."

The FTC on Wednesday declined to comment.

Meta, which owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, has

countered that the FTC cannot "unilaterally rewrite" the prior

settlement terms, which a U.S. judge approved in 2020.

Meta said the FTC's proposed changes would "curtail Meta's

development of new products, superintend Meta's corporate

governance, and impair Meta's ability to serve its users and

advertisers."

The FTC countered that the settlement, which set new

compliance and oversight requirements, was not intended to

resolve "all claims in perpetuity."

Meta and other social media companies are separately

fighting hundreds of U.S. lawsuits accusing them of addicting

children to their platforms.

The FTC is also suing Meta for allegedly monopolizing the

personal social network market. Meta has denied the allegations.