According to a previous report, social media could get warning labels just like cigarettes. A federal judge previously stated that social media platforms are not obliged to prevent teens from viewing certain content. In the latest news, the FTC says social media companies can’t be trusted to regulate themselves. The FTC accuses social media and streaming companies of failing to protect users from privacy intrusions and safeguard children and teens on their sites. It includes platforms such as YouTube, Amazon, and Facebook.
FTC sent questions to nine social media and streaming companies
The report is based on questions the FTC sent to nine companies in December 2020 under section 6(b) of the FTC Act. The nine companies are Amazon (which owns the gaming platform Twitch), Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, ByteDance (which owns the video-sharing platform TikTok), Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp.
The staff report asks for information about how the companies collect, track, and use personal and demographic information. The FTC also asks for clear information on how big social media and streaming companies determine which specific ads and other content to show individuals. It’s not fully clear how they apply algorithms or data analytics to personal and demographic information, and how their practices impact children and teens.
“The report lays out how social media and video streaming companies harvest an enormous amount of Americans’ personal data and monetize it to the tune of billions of dollars a year,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “While lucrative for the companies, these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identity theft to stalking. Several firms’ failure to adequately protect kids and teens online is especially troubling. The Report’s findings are timely, particularly as state and federal policymakers consider legislation to protect people from abusive data practices,” she added.
The study raises concerns regarding data handling controls and oversight
The report suggests that the companies collected and could indefinitely retain troves of data. It includes information from data brokers and about both users and non-users of their platforms. It raises serious concerns regarding the adequacy of the companies’ data handling controls and oversight. The staff report also notes that some companies did not delete all user data in response to user deletion requests.
Many companies asserted th at there are no children on their platforms. They reportedly didn’t direct their services to children or allow children to create accounts. As the staff report notes, this was “an apparent attempt to avoid liability under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule.” In reality, many of the social media and video streaming companies often treat teens the same as adult users.
