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NGL becomes the first app banned from hosting minors by the FTC

On Tuesday, the FTC unanimously banned the social messaging app NGL from hosting minors as part of a $5 million settlement. The first-of-its-kind ban comes after revelations that the company actively marketed the app to children with bait-and-switch tactics and other offenses.

The first-of-its-kind ban comes after revelations that the company actively marketed the app to children with bait-and-switch tactics, false claims about AI moderation and the targeting of “popular” kids (like cheerleaders) to try to lure others onto the predatory hellscape. But the FTC says the company made it much worse with false claims of using “world class AI content moderation” with “deep learning and pattern matching algorithms” to prevent cyberbullying and other concerning behavior. In addition, the company’s predatory business practices also allegedly included bait-and-switch upsell tactics, which promised to reveal the identity of anonymous “friends” (which may have been fake) if they paid up to $10 weekly for a premium subscription.

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