Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing, May 4 (Xinhua)-- the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday accused Meta-owned Facebook of misleading parents about child protection and proposed tightening existing privacy agreements, including banning them from using minors' data to make money.

Specifically, FTC said Facebook misled parents about the degree of control over whom children contact in Messenger Kids apps and was deceptive about the extent to which app developers accessed users' private data, in violation of Facebook's privacy agreement with FTC in 2019.

FTC's proposed privacy tightening measures include banning Facebook from making money from collecting data from users under the age of 18, including in its virtual reality business. In the use of face recognition technology, it will face greater restrictions.

Meta shares fell as much as 2 per cent on Wednesday on the news. By the close, Meta shares had narrowed their losses to 0.92%. Meta also operates Instagram, whose digital targeted advertising contributes more than 98 per cent of revenue and relies on users' personal data.

In response, TikTokMeta shifted its focus to rival TikTok, calling FTC's move a "political show". "We will fight for it and expect to win." Meta said.

Although Meta has the largest social network in the world, it is competing with TikTok for the attention of young users after the short video app TikTok became popular among American teenagers a few years ago.

FTC's move on Wednesday is the first step towards revising its 2019 privacy agreement. Facebook will have 30 days to respond. The company may also appeal to the Court of Appeal against any commission decision. FTC has twice reached a settlement with Facebook over privacy violations. The first time was in 2012. In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a record $5 billion fine to resolve allegations that the company violated the 2012 consent order because it misled users about the degree of control of personal data.

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