FTC asked Facebook, Twitter and other social media that how data is used to select advertisements as US cracks down on Big Tech.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking information from Facebook, Twitter and other social media and video-streaming companies about how they use the personal information that they collect on their users.
In addition to Facebook and Twitter, the orders requesting data were sent to Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp, Amazon.com, China’s ByteDance unit TikTok, Discord, Reddit, Snapchat’s parent company, and Google subsidiary YouTube.
The FTC is seeking to learn how the companies collect data on users, how they decide which advertisements to show and how algorithms are used, among other information, the agency said in a statement.
It is also seeking information about how the companies’ practices affect children and teenagers.
The companies have 45 days to respond to the orders, which are usually used to generate policy or recommend legislation.
FTC issues orders to 9 social media and video streaming services seeking data about how they collect, use, and present information: https://t.co/0cYpqLRFji pic.twitter.com/3wmKATILy7
— FTC (@FTC) December 14, 2020
In a joint statement, two Democratic members of the commission, Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Slaughter, and one Republican, Christine Wilson, noted their impetus for the order.
“Never before has there been an industry capable of surveilling and monetizing so much of our personal lives,” they wrote.
“Social media and video streaming companies now follow users everywhere through apps on their always-present mobile devices. This constant access allows these firms to monitor where users go, the people with whom they interact, and what they are doing. … Too much about the industry remains dangerously opaque”, the statement said.
Discord said it looked forward to answering the FTC’s questions. “We make no money from advertising, selling user data to advertisers, or sharing users’ personal information with others. Instead, the company generates its revenue directly from users through a paid subscription service,” a spokesperson said in a statement emailed to a news agency.
The probe comes as Washington puts pressure on key social media and technology companies.
The FTC and nearly every US state sued Facebook on December 9, saying claiming it violated antitrust law and should potentially be broken up.
Facebook owns popular messenger service WhatsApp and image-based social media platform Instagram.
The coalition of 46 states, Washington, DC and Guam asked in the lawsuit for Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to be judged to be illegal, which could cause them to be sold off.
The US Justice Department also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google which controls around 90 percent of online searches – in October.
Google claims the lawsuit is “deeply flawed” and will not help consumers.