I appreciate that the FTC is trying to do right by consumers - it's a great mandate. This Snapchat issue seems so inconsequential compared to two areas I'd love to see them addressing - net neutrality and data privacy across all services.
Broadband market regulations like net neutrality are, to the extent any federal agency has jurisdiction, within the jurisdiction of the FCC not the FTC. I'm not clear that FCC has authority to do much more than it is on data privacy.
Also note that there is as difference between regulatory actions and enforcement actions. The later are inherently smaller in scope but necessary for the former to be meaningful.
I'm neither a lawyer nor a politician. But the FTC's mandate is to protect American consumers, "To prevent business practices that are anticompetitive or deceptive or unfair to consumers". And those are the consumer issues related to tech that matter right now.
Comments
I appreciate that the FTC is trying to do right by consumers - it's a great mandate. This Snapchat issue seems so inconsequential compared to two areas I'd love to see them addressing - net neutrality and data privacy across all services.
Broadband market regulations like net neutrality are, to the extent any federal agency has jurisdiction, within the jurisdiction of the FCC not the FTC. I'm not clear that FCC has authority to do much more than it is on data privacy.
Also note that there is as difference between regulatory actions and enforcement actions. The later are inherently smaller in scope but necessary for the former to be meaningful.
I'm neither a lawyer nor a politician. But the FTC's mandate is to protect American consumers, "To prevent business practices that are anticompetitive or deceptive or unfair to consumers". And those are the consumer issues related to tech that matter right now.