What the FTC Learned About Social Media

During the Trump Administration, the Federal Trade Commission ordered nine of the largest social media and video streaming services—Amazon, Facebook (which is now Meta), YouTube, Twitter (now known as X), Snap, ByteDance (which owns TikTok), Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp—to provide data on how they collect, use, and present personal information, their advertising and user engagement practices, and how their practices affect children and teens. On September 19, 2024, the FTC released findings on how social media and video streaming companies harvest an enormous amount of Americans’ personal data and monetize it to the tune of billions of dollars a year. In A Look Behind the Screens Examining the Data Practices of Social Media and Video Streaming Services, the FTC shared information about how these platforms collect, track and use personal and demographic information, how they determine which ads and other content are shown to consumers, whether and how they apply algorithms or data analytics to personal and demographic information, and how their practices impact children and teens. Here we take a quick look at the FTC's major findings and recommendations around five issues: data practices, advertising, algorithms and data analytics, children and teens, and competition.