FTC bans anonymous messaging app from hosting underage users

The Federal Trade Commission has banned an anonymous messaging app from hosting children under 18 on its platform to resolve allegations that it was unfairly marketed to minors and exposed them to cyberbullying and harassment, the agency said Tuesday.

The FTC’s settlement with “NGL: Ask Me Anything” is the first time the agency has ordered the messaging app to stop hosting teens and children online. The move comes after years of mounting pressure for lawmakers and regulators to hold technology platforms accountable for their impact on young people’s mental health.

In addition to the ban, NGL Labs, LLC and two of its co-founders, Raj Vir and João Figueiredo, will also pay US$5 million as part of the settlement.

“NGL marketed its app to children and teens despite knowing it exposed them to cyberbullying and harassment,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement.

“We will continue to crack down on companies that illegally exploit children for profit,” Khan added.

A complaint released Tuesday by the FTC and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office alleges that NGL and its co-founders actively marketed their services to children and teens and made false claims. The complaint alleged that the app falsely claimed that its artificial intelligence (AI) content moderation program filtered cyberbullying and other harmful messages.

It also alleged that NGL sent fake messages that appeared to come from real people to trick users into signing up for a paid subscription, along with false promises that this would reveal the identity of the message senders.

“The consequences of these actions can be serious. The anonymity provided by the app could facilitate rampant cyberbullying among teens, causing untold harm to our young people,” Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.

“We cannot tolerate such behavior, nor can we allow companies to profit at the expense of the safety and well-being of our children. Today’s indictments send a clear message that deceptive practices and those that target vulnerable populations will not be tolerated,” she added.

The app launched in 2021 as an anonymous messaging service that allowed users to receive anonymous messages from friends and followers on social media. After downloading, users could share a link on social media accounts asking their followers to respond to prompts, such as “If you could change one thing about me, what would it be?”

Followers who clicked the link were directed to the NGL app and were able to send the user an anonymous message.

The complaint alleges that in 2022, after the app failed to attract much interest, NGL began automatically sending users fake computer-generated messages that appear to be from real people. When users posted inviting messages, they received fake computer-generated messages in return, such as “are you straight?” or “I know what you did.”

When users responded to the response prompt, either from real people or falsely generated messages, they saw advertising that encouraged them to purchase the NGL pro version of the app for up to $9.99 per week. The complaint alleged that even those who paid were not given the sender’s name and instead received “tips.”

The complaint alleged that NGL’s founders “laughed” at users who complained about the problem. The company’s product lead “wrote ‘Lol suckers’ in a text message” with the co-founders named in the complaint.

The Hill has reached out to NGL for comment.

Children’s online safety advocacy group Fairplay and parent advocate Kristen Bride, who urged the FTC to investigate NGL in October, applauded the agency’s decision.

Bride’s 16-year-old son, Carson, died by suicide in 2020 after facing cyberbullying on other anonymous messaging apps.

“We have known for over a decade that anonymous apps marketed to teens lead to cyberbullying and, in many cases, suicide, like what happened to my 16-year-old son Carson in 2020. This dangerous business model keeps kids involved as they struggle to identify their unknown harassers so these companies can profit from more data collection,” Bride said in a statement.

“It is unfair that NGL not only charges vulnerable teens for useless tips about who is messaging them, but that the developers themselves send harassing messages to teens and make jokes about it while parents express concerns about cyberbullying ,” she added.

Updated at 11:43 am

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story