FTC Probes YouTube Over Suspended Accounts, Potential Lawsuit Looms

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly investigating whether Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube violated consumer protection laws by suspending user accounts. The agency has been probing the video platform since last year and is in the final stages of preparing a potential lawsuit, according to Bloomberg.

The probe examines whether YouTube's actions constitute a violation of its own user policies or if users were misled about what content they could post on the platform. This includes instances where users' accounts were banned or demoted for allegedly violating the service's terms of use.

YouTube suspended Donald Trump's account in January 2021 following the assault on the U.S. Capitol, and his account was reinstated in 2023. The FTC is also looking into whether YouTube removed content that users believed they were allowed to post, only to have it later removed or their accounts suspended.

The potential lawsuit could result in a settlement between the FTC and YouTube, or the agency could take the case to court. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has previously expressed concerns about social media platforms' content policies and potentially colluding to censor certain political speech.