FTC orders Amazon, ByteDance, Discord, Facebook and WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap, Twitter, and YouTube to share info on how they collect and use their users' data
- The Federal Trade Commission is requiring nine tech companies to share information about how they collect and use data from their users, the agency announced Monday.
CNBCLauren Feiner
Context & Ripple Effects
This 6(b) information order extends a document-demand strategy regulators had already aimed at big tech: months earlier, bipartisan House lawmakers demanded internal emails from Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple for their antitrust probe (House lawmakers' document requests), and the FTC separately began querying Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft about unreported small acquisitions (FTC's unreported-acquisition inquiry). The difference is scope — this one targets the underlying commodity, user data, across nine platforms including mid-size ones like Discord and Reddit.
Amazon, ByteDance, Discord, Facebook, WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap, Twitter, and YouTube must each divert legal and engineering resources to explain their data collection, retention, and advertising flows on the FTC's timetable — with responses becoming an evidentiary record the agency can act on.
Second-order effects
Once the FTC holds comparable disclosures across all nine platforms, it can benchmark practices against each other, turning laggards' or outliers' data monetization into enforcement targets — the path that led to the agency's later pledge to crack down on illegal use of sensitive data and false anonymization claims (FTC crackdown on sensitive-data misuse).
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, sweeping 6(b) studies become the standard on-ramp from information-gathering to formal rulemaking, shifting oversight of ad-funded platforms from case-by-case antitrust suits toward systemic regulation of how consumer data is collected and monetized.
The trend: US regulators are replacing piecemeal investigations with cross-platform data-practice studies that build the public record for structural rules on surveillance-based business models.
Today, the @FTC launched an inquiry into the social media and video streaming industry. We have ordered several firms to detail their user surveillance and behavioral advertising practices, including: @TikTok_us @Facebook @Amazon @Snapchat @YouTube @Reddit @Discord @Twitter
@b_fung
Brian Fung on x
The FTC is kicking off a fresh study of how online platforms handle consumer data — sending letters requesting info from Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, as well as apps like Discord, Snap and Reddit: https://www.ftc.gov/...
@ashleyrgold
Ashley Gold on x
Scoop: FTC set to announce wide-ranging study into privacy/data collection practices of ByteDance, Amazon, Discord, Facebook, Reddit, Snap, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube https://www.axios.com/...
@neil_chilson
Neil Chilson on x
Just finished reading the sample order and I am frankly stunned. I worked on several 6(b) studies while at the FTC and I've never seen one go out the FTC's doors that is anywhere near this extensive and unfocused. It's like demanding a backdoor into the cos' networks. https://twi…
@quinnypig
Corey Quinn on x
I think I'm pretty comfortable in saying “if you're reluctant to do this, you're almost certainly doing something you shouldn't be doing.” https://twitter.com/...
@arielbogle
Ariel Bogle on x
Good to see some underexamined companies on this list. TikTok, obviously, but Discord too. https://twitter.com/...
@moonalice
Roger McNamee on x
Three cheers for @FTC! https://twitter.com/...
@mikeelgan
Mike Elgan on x
This is great news. Amazon never tells anyone what they do with user data. https://www.ftc.gov/... https://twitter.com/...
@chrismessina
@chrismessina on x
Notably absent from the FTC's list? Apple. Incredible that Apple launched their #PrivacyNutritionLabels the same day the FTC announced this probe. Brilliant brand positioning! https://twitter.com/...
@ftc
@ftc on x
FTC issued the orders under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, which authorizes the Commission to conduct wide-ranging studies that do not have a specific law enforcement purpose.
@shoshanazuboff
Shoshana Zuboff on x
Bravo @chopraftc and @FTC colleagues for vital inquiry into the mechanisms of #SurveillanceCapitalism. We need to get under the hood and into the motor if we are to interrupt and outlaw its anti-democratic and anti-human operations.@davidcicilline https://tinyurl.com/... https://…
@caro
Caroline McCarthy on x
I'm curious as to whether any of you think there are companies that *should* have received one of these little Christmas cards from the FTC but didn't. https://www.ftc.gov/...
@blackamazon
@blackamazon on x
... I have so many concerns https://twitter.com/...
@lauren_feiner
Lauren Feiner on x
Following the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Facebook last week, the agency is now ordering nine tech companies including the social media giant to hand over info about their data practices. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@karissabe
Karissa Bell on x
FTC is demanding Snap, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook/WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok and Discord answer questions about ad targeting, algorithms, tracking and “how their practices affect children and teens” https://www.ftc.gov/...
@alex
Tired Alex on x
Discord is in the group, which makes sense. Also highlights the platform's rising size. https://twitter.com/...
@ashleyrgold
Ashley Gold on x
For you FTC heads, this is a 6(b) study, which allows the FTC to gather lots of data on company practices without a specific law enforcement purpose.
@hawleymo
Josh Hawley on x
I called for this action against #BigTech over a year ago. But better late than never. Now Congress should BAN @Facebook and @Twitter and @Google stealing our data https://twitter.com/...
@axios
@axios on x
Scoop: The FTC will announce it's launching a new inquiry into the privacy and data collection practices of major tech firms including Amazon, TikTok owner ByteDance, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook as well as its subsidiary WhatsApp, Axios has learned. https://www.axios.com/...