Consumer Watchdog Slams Latest FTC Move Targeting American Tech Companies

For Immediate Release                                   Contact: Abigail Graham: 202-535-7492

May 3, 2023                                                                           

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) condemns the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) continued political harassment and targeting of Meta. The latest move by the Commission, currently a completely partisan agency without sitting Republican commissioners, departs from a 2020 agreement between the FTC and Meta on online privacy. The new terms would effectively paralyze huge portions of Meta’s business.

In response, TPA Executive Director Patrick Hedger, offered the following comment:

“So far this year, the FTC has been handed a number of high-profile court losses, including trying to sue Meta to stop innovative acquisitions to build out the company’s virtual reality content in what many concluded was pure political targeting of the company by the Commission. This latest move to upend the current online privacy agreement with the company is just the latest in a series of efforts by Chair Khan to unilaterally target American tech companies and sidestep Congress.

“The new terms go so far as to prohibit Meta from launching any new products or services without an independent assessor verifying that they do not have any security weaknesses. Not even the federal government itself is subject to such scrutiny, as repeated cybersecurity lapses across agencies from the Office of Personal Management, to the IRS, to DC Health Link demonstrate.

“On top of trying to legislate privacy rules through executive fiat, the FTC is clearly attempting to implement a backdoor form of age verification online. This has been proposed in states and in Congress, receiving much pushback as many have pointed out such measures would force companies to collect even more sensitive data about children. This all goes without mentioning the constitutional right to anonymous speech.

“With major internal problems such as staff departures and commissioners resigning in protest, the FTC simply does not have the legitimacy to unilaterally amend its previous agreements in thinly-veiled attempts to regulate beyond its mandate. Congress must rein in the FTC now.

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.