Meta accuses Lina Khan of playing politics with children’s data. The reality is more complex

Meta has accused the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of pursuing an anti-Big Tech political agenda, after the agency proposed a “blanket prohibition” on Wednesday seeking to ban the company from profiting off of children’s data.



In its press release, the government’s top data-privacy regulator alleges that the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp “repeatedly violated its privacy promises” in a way that “has put young users at risk.” Meta’s track record is far from fantastic on this front anyway, but the FTC specifically contends that it breached a 2020 privacy order it agreed to in order to resolve its Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Meta hasn’t just failed to comply, the agency argues; it’s misled parents on how diligently their kids’ privacy was being protected.



The FTC cites an independent investigation that reportedly uncovered “gaps and weaknesses” in Facebook’s privacy program. Notably, it says children under age 13 were able to communicate privately with users who weren’t vetted by parents, using the Messenger Kids app that Meta set up as a “safer alternative” to the Messenger platform.



In a long response, Meta countered, “We have not violated the agreement and operate an industry-leading privacy program.” According to the company, the FTC’s proposal is merely the latest attempt by Lina Khan, its Biden-appointed chair, to inhibit Big Tech, a move that “could only be described as a political stunt.”



“Khan’s insistence on using any measure—however baseless—to antagonize American business has reached a new low,” the statement reads, adding: “Let’s be clear about what the FTC is trying to do: usurp the authority of Congress to set industry-wide standards and instead single out one American company while allowing Chinese companies, like TikTok, to operate without constraint on American soil.”



Late Wednesday night, Meta policy director Andy Stone echoed the “political stunt” phrase on Twitter, where he’s kept busy citing suspicious takes of the FTC’s motives by everyone from tech journalists and legal scholars to the Wall Street Journal opinion page and Adam Kovacevich, Google’s former head of public policy.



“The timing is striking,” Stone added himself, “coming just after the agency lost its bipartisan membership and just before the FTC was to get an update on our compliance efforts.” (Emphasis his.)



Politics as usual or something different?



Technically, the FTC’s case started back in 2018, under FTC chair Joe Simons, a Trump appointee, following the revelation that Facebook had given Cambridge Analytica access to the personal data of tens of millions of users. Facebook was hit with a massive $5 billion fine at the time, alongside an order barring the company from misrepresenting its privacy practices.



Meta’s assertion that TikTok is sneaking by the feds seemingly ignores the fact that its Chinese archrival has been subject to a consent decree for four of its five years in America, literally for violating children’s privacy. “This is the largest civil penalty ever obtained by the Commission in a children’s privacy case,” the FTC observed at the time.



Meta also fails to mention the array of charges simultaneously being levied by states that stem from Meta’s alleged failure to protect children’s safety—and not from states conspiring with Biden’s liberal FTC. Red states like Utah, Texas, and Louisiana have enacted or are pushing proposals to limit kids’ access to Facebook alongside blue states like California and New Jersey.



Just last week, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that her state was suing Meta and TikTok, together. The lawsuit calls TikTok “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” but contends that Meta has rigged Facebook to keep children as addicted as possible, fueling mental health issues among the state’s youth. “We have watched over the past decade as one social media company after another has exploited our kids for profit and escaped government oversight,” Sanders’s statement said. “My administration will not tolerate that failed status quo.”



Meanwhile, Meta vows to “vigorously fight” the FTC, even adding it “expect[s] to prevail.” But more states are beginning to place Meta and TikTok in the same camp when it comes to kids’ privacy, if not their political allegiance.



At the same time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s lawyers are staring at more legal battles spanning the globe. France’s antitrust regulators announced interim measures against Meta on Thursday, arguing advertisers aren’t being given access to data that verifies if ads are reaching their intended audiences (specifically, whether they might be appearing on objectionable posts or pages).



A decision is also expected soon on a bigger regulatory risk that Meta faces, regarding U.S./EU data privacy. European laws aren’t as forgiving of Meta’s data use, and the company just warned investors that under the worst-case scenario—where the EU suspended its transatlantic data flows—”roughly 10%” of Meta’s global revenue would be at risk.