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In a first , the Federal Trade Commission is ostracise an app from serve users under the age of 18 . The agencyannouncedon Tuesday that it ’s banning NGL , an anonymous social app , from marketing or pop the question its app to youngster . NGL will pay $ 5 million to steady down the case .
set up in 2021 , NGL rise to the top of the app store ground on its premise of allow users to mail links to their social accounts that friends can snap on to send in anonymous questions .
The FTC and the Los Angeles DA ’s situation allege that the app and its co - founders not only market NGL to minors , but that they also falsely claim that its AI content moderation system filtered out harmful messages and cyberbullying .
Thecomplaintalso allege that NGL sent fake interrogative that appeared to come from real people to trick users into paying its $ 9.99 monthly subscription to get mite about who sent the content .
TechCrunch detect this to be the caseback in 2022 , when we shared an NGL tie receive questions in an Instagram Story that was live for just a bare minute before we removed it . A few hours after posting the liaison , we get dubiousness from half a 12 “ people ” on NGL . But in realism , no one had realize our link because it was n’t live for more than a second .
The FTC say that NGL fall back to automatically beam user fake computing machine - generated questions in 2022 after die to generate stake in its app . Users set out receive fake messages such as “ are you consecutive ? ” or “ I make love what you did , ” according to the ill . When users saw the interrogative , NGL would boost them to purchase the app ’s monthly subscription to get hints about the identity , despite it coming from a bot .
“ NGL ’s bait - and - switch tactic prompted many consumers to complain , which NGL executive express mirth off , dismissing such users as ‘ suckers ’ , ” the FTC says .
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In plus , the complaint say that NGL failed to intelligibly disclose consent for recur charges for its give service and that the party violated the Children ’s Online Privacy Protection Act ( COPPA ) Rule , which requires apps that are engineer to kid under 13 to inform their parents about the personal selective information they take in .
“ NGL marketed its app to nipper and stripling despite bonk that it was divulge them to cyberbullying and harassment , ” said FTC Chair Lina Khan in apress freeing . “In brightness of NGL ’s reckless disregard for kids ’ safety , the FTC ’s order would ban NGL from marketing or declare oneself its app to those under 18 . We will keep cracking down on business concern that unlawfully overwork tyke for profits . ”
As part of the resolution , NGL has to implement an old age gate that keep new and current user from accessing the app if they are under 18 . NGL is also interdict from misrepresenting the sender of message and required to disclose data about repeat charges . Plus , the company is prohibited from cook the capabilities of its AI capacity easing system ’s ability to filter out out cyberbullying .
“ After nearly two year of cooperating with the FTC ’s probe , we view this solvent as an chance to make NGL better than ever for our user and we reckon the arrangement is in our serious interest , ” said NGL co - founder Joao Figueiredo in a statement to TechCrunch . “ While we believe many of the allegations around the young of our user base are factually wrong , we anticipate that the harmonize upon eld - gating and other procedures will now provide direction for others in our space , and hopefully amend policies loosely , ” he added .
The settlement represents one of the most significant actions choose by the FTC under Chair Lina Khan with the aim of prevent social media services from turn a profit from practices that have the potential to harm small fry .
