Meta sues the FTC, claiming its in-house trials violate the US Constitution, and asks a court to halt the agency's bid to change a $5B privacy fine from 2020
Bloomberg
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the latest escalation in Meta's effort to prevent the FTC from revising its 2020 privacy settlement. A court had recently allowed the agency to proceed with proposed changes, including a potential bar on monetizing children's data, after Meta's earlier attempt to take the dispute to court.
The new challenge broadens the fight from the settlement's terms to the FTC's adjudicative process itself. It follows Meta's prior request to block the proposed settlement changes, making the procedural venue central to the privacy dispute.
First-order effects
Meta seeks to pause the FTC's attempt to modify the 2020 settlement while the court considers its constitutional challenge to the agency's in-house proceedings.
The FTC must defend both its proposed privacy restrictions and its authority to pursue them through its internal process; the requested halt is not itself a halt.
Second-order effects
A successful pause or procedural challenge could slow the FTC's ability to turn settlement-monitoring disputes into new restrictions on Meta's data practices.
The case gives other companies facing FTC administrative proceedings a closely watched argument for shifting disputes into federal court, though its applicability would depend on the outcome.
Third-order effects
If courts increasingly constrain agency in-house adjudication, enforcement may become more dependent on federal litigation, potentially making remedies slower and more resource-intensive to obtain.
The dispute illustrates how privacy enforcement is moving beyond fines toward contested limits on data use, especially where those limits affect monetization.
The trend: The larger trend is a shift from one-time privacy penalties toward ongoing, court-tested oversight of how major platforms use data.
Meta continues to prove how far they will go to put profits over kids' safety. Challenging the constitutionality of the Federal Trade Commission because it holds you accountable for violating your legal commitments to protect kids' online privacy? Get real. https://www.reuters.…
Meta might be right. — Don't let your feelings about Meta color your opinion of this. Overreaching government power is worse than anything “Big Tech” can cook up. They do us all a favor when they push back. — (Stay tuned for an amicus brief I wrote supporting another Meta a…
If you're wondering how we got here, you can thank the 5th Circuit for flouting precedent and history in Jarkesy and SCOTUS for not slapping it down. [embedded post]
1. I think these moves are going to blow up in corporate defendants' faces. First, these cases frequently settle. But when you settle in court, as opposed to an agency, fed judges review then with more scrutiny, resulting in bigger penalties for corporate & individual wrongdoer…
.@Meta's lawsuit against @FTC is like big tobacco trying to gut the FDA because they didn't want to be held accountable for hooking kids onto nicotine. The FTC has been around for over a century now. This agency is constitutional and using its powers to apply the law as written.
Zuckerberg, Meta, Insta make so much $ inappropriately off children online that they want to take @FTC America's consumer safety cops off the beat following embarrassing @WSJ expose on blind eye to pedophiles, consent decree violations & harm to kids https://www.msn.com/...
Meta has time and again chosen profits over privacy and knowingly endangered the mental health of children and teens. This lawsuit is their latest distraction. We need to pass COPPA 2.0 and protect children and teens' privacy online.
It's useful to see just who the butlers to power that help Meta manipulate children are. In this case it's a lawyer named James Rouhande of Davis Polk. It's hard to find a grosser resume. And this is the stuff he *brags* about. https://www.davispolk.com/... [image]
Democrats are hammering Meta's new appeal seeking to block the FTC's proposal to bar the tech giant from monetizing children's data. Background: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [image]
Time after time, @Meta has proven their commitment to pursuing profitability at all costs, including jeopardizing the safety, wellbeing, and privacy of children and younger users. Today's lawsuit is another act of desperation. 🧵
I vehemently disagree with Fairplay on bills like KOSA. But I completely agree that this legal attack from Meta is absurd and dangerous. The FTC needs more authority to protect our rights online, not less.
🚨BREAKING: Meta, following the typical monopolist playbook, just filed a lawsuit challenging @FTC's constitutionality. It's a baseless attack from a company that has repeatedly shown itself willing to sacrifice users' safety and privacy for profits, says @CapitolKVD.👇 [image]
“Meta” — aka rebranded Facebook — is making Federal Society inspired attacks on settled constitutional law that enables the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect consumers. Let's ostracize the Democrats who work for Meta.
What is Facebook's response to the ugly stories on how it tracks and manipulates children? To apologize? To obey the Federal Trade Commission's order to stop? Nope. Zuckerberg just asked a court to declare the FTC unconstitutional. https://storage.courtlistener.com/ ...
BREAKING: Mark Zuckerburg and Meta are asking the courts to declare the Federal Trade Commission unconstitutional. Meta's suit also asks the court to stop the FTC from ordering the social media giant to stop collecting revenue on data from people under age 18.