The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday accused Facebook Meta of misleading parents about child protection and proposed toughening an existing privacy agreement to incorporate a ban on benefiting from minors’ data.
Specifically, the FTC found that Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook had misled parents about how much control that they had over who their children interacted with on the Messenger Kids app, and misled about how much app developers had access to users’ private data, in violation of the 2019 Privacy Agreement.
The FTC’s proposed changes include banning Facebook from monetizing data it collects from users under 18, including within the virtual reality business. It would also face prolonged restrictions on the usage of facial recognition technology.
After this news, Meta shares fell as much as 2%.
In an announcement, Meta said the FTC’s motion was a “political ploy” and that the FTC didn’t take motion against “Chinese corporations like TikTok.”
“We will vigorously fight this motion and expect to win,” the corporate said.
Wednesday’s motion is step one within the strategy of amending the 2019 contract. Facebook can have 30 days to reply. The company may appeal any decision of the committee to the appellate court.
“This is a really significant statement from the FTC regarding whether Meta has met its child protection responsibilities,” said Debra Williamson of Insider Intelligence, adding that “the revenue implications are unlikely to be too large.”
Williamson said about 5.2% of monthly Facebook users within the US are under the age of 18, as are 12.6% of Instagram users.
“Facebook has repeatedly broken its privacy guarantees,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Office of Consumer Protection. “The company’s recklessness has put young users in danger, and Facebook must answer for its failures.”
“Facebook has repeatedly broken its privacy guarantees,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Office of Consumer Protection. “The company’s recklessness has put young users in danger, and Facebook must answer for its failures.”
The FTC has twice previously settled with Facebook over privacy violations.
The first took place in 2012. Facebook agreed in 2019 to pay a record $5 billion positive to deal with allegations that it violated a 2012 consent order by misleading users about how much control that they had over their personal information. This order was finalized in 2020.
