FTC Demands Social-Media, Operations Data from Big Tech Companies
15 December 2020 - 8:39AM
Dow Jones News
By Ryan Tracy
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission on Monday ordered
nine prominent social-media and internet companies to provide a
litany of data about their operations as part of a wide-ranging
study into their business practices.
The orders demand the companies turn over detailed, private
business information about how they track Americans' online
activities and how they use that data.
Companies receiving letters included Amazon.com Inc., Facebook
Inc. and its subsidiary WhatsApp Inc., Reddit Inc., Snap Inc.,
Twitter Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube LLC, Discord Inc. and TikTok
owner ByteDance Ltd., which is based in Beijing.
The announcement isn't a law enforcement action and doesn't
carry any immediate penalties, though the information gathered
could form the basis for future action by the FTC. The agency has
broad legal authority to seek information from U.S. companies and
is also empowered to police unfair and deceptive business
practices.
"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. But to
what end?" FTC Commissioners Rohit Chopra, Rebecca Slaughter and
Christine Wilson said in a joint statement. "Too much about the
industry remains dangerously opaque."
FTC Chairman Joseph Simons voted with the 4-1 majority to
approve the order, but without comment. Commissioner Noah Phillips
dissented, saying he supported the broader objective but calling
the FTC's request "an undisciplined foray into a wide variety of
topics, some only tangentially related to the stated focus of this
investigation."
The companies have 45 days to respond. Representatives of the
companies generally declined to comment or didn't immediately
respond to requests for comment.
"We're working, as we always do, to ensure the FTC has the
information it needs to understand how Twitter operates its
services," said a Twitter spokesperson.
The FTC's move is the latest regulatory headache for tech
companies in Washington, following antitrust lawsuits against
Facebook and Alphabet's Google in recent weeks. Facebook and
YouTube were also hit with FTC fines last year, Facebook for
breaking promises about protecting user privacy and YouTube for
impermissible collection of data on child users.
A 31-page sample order published by the agency demands an array
of data and documentation related to business strategies,
algorithms, advertising revenue and "each User Attribute that the
Company uses, tracks, estimates, or derives."
Write to Ryan Tracy at ryan.tracy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 14, 2020 16:24 ET (21:24 GMT)
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