The US regulator, the Federal Trade Commission, has accused Meta of putting children at risk by shirking its responsibilities when it comes to parental controls. The FTC is looking at banning Meta from using youth data to make money, a move that predictably has irked the tech giant known for its dodgy dealings of data in the pursuit of money.
The FTC has accused Meta of infringing on its 2020 privacy policy, which says that Meta was required to establish a set of measures to control data usage, largely a result of the Cambridge Analytica incident. But the FTC maintains that Meta unfairly represented the level of control that parents have over their children’s activity on Messenger Kids, plus there are accusations that Meta has allowed app developers to access the private data of users.
The FTC explained that Facebook had repeatedly infringed privacy agreements and that the company’s behaviour was putting the well-being of young users of the platform at risk.
Meta has since issued a statement, saying that the move from the FTC is a political stunt and that they heard no mention of this theory despite three years of ongoing engagement.
Meta went on to throw TikTok under the bus, much like TikTok did in front of Congress, accusing the FTC of acting unfairly by singling out the one American company, Meta, while allowing Chinese companies like TikTok to operate in American markets.
