The Federal Trade Commission has proposed banning Facebook parent Meta for profiting from the swathes of data it collects from its under-18s userbase.

It argues Meta misleads parents, and its actions violate a 2020 privacy order.

“Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement.

“The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.”

The FTC probe will no doubt rankle Meta, who already copped a A$7.5 billion civil penalty following a 2019 investigation by the commission into its privacy practices.

Meta has dismissed the action as a “political stunt”.

“Despite three years of continual engagement with the FTC around our agreement, they provided no opportunity to discuss this new, totally unprecedented theory,” a Meta spokesperson said.

“We have spent vast resources building and implementing an industry-leading privacy program under the terms of our FTC agreement. We will vigorously fight this action and expect to prevail.”