On December 14, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had issued orders to nine social media and video streaming companies, requiring them to provide a special report on data collection, advertisement, and user engagement practices. By a vote of 4 to 1, the FTC issued the orders to conduct a study, authorized by section 6(b) of the FTC Act, assess the full scale and scope of social media and video streaming companies, and to better understand the incentives of such companies. The orders have been sent to Facebook, WhatsApp, Snap (which operates Snapchat), Twitter, YouTube, ByteDance (which operates Tik Tok), Twitch, Reddit, and Discord because of the important role that user data analysis plays in their business models.
A detailed explanation of the 6(b) Orders can be found in our client alert here.
For more information, please contact media and marketing attorney, Amanda Schreyer or privacy attorney, Faith Kasparian (CIPP-U.S.).
Good Company: A Morse Blog 