The Federal Trade Commission just dropped a bombshell complaint against Sendit, the anonymous messaging app that's been wildly popular with Gen Z teens. The FTC alleges the company illegally collected data from over 116,000 children under 13 without parental consent, while simultaneously tricking users with fake provocative messages designed to push expensive weekly subscriptions. It's a regulatory wake-up call for the entire teen social app ecosystem.
The Federal Trade Commission just delivered a crushing blow to the anonymous messaging app space, filing a detailed complaint against Sendit that reads like a playbook of how not to run a teen-focused social platform. The agency alleges Sendit's parent company Iconic Hearts systematically deceived children, violated federal privacy laws, and built its entire business model around manipulating vulnerable teenage users.
Sendit exploded in popularity after Snapchat banned competitors YOLO and LMK in 2021 following a lawsuit over a child's suicide. The app quickly racked up 3.5 million downloads as teens flocked to fill the anonymous messaging void. Users could send each other anonymous questions through integrations with Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat - a seemingly innocent premise that regulators say masked a sophisticated deception operation.
According to the FTC complaint, Sendit didn't just facilitate anonymous messages between real users. The company actively created fake, provocative messages designed to hook teenagers emotionally. Questions like 'would you ever get with me?' and 'have you done drugs?' weren't coming from classmates or friends - they were manufactured by Sendit itself to drive engagement and revenue.
The monetization scheme was equally manipulative. Curious teens could pay $9.99 for a 'Diamond Membership' to reveal who supposedly sent these tantalizing anonymous messages. But the FTC alleges Sendit buried the fact that this was a recurring weekly charge, not a one-time payment. Even worse, when users paid to unmask the sender of a Sendit-generated fake message, they'd receive completely fabricated identity information.
'There's a lot of great things about what we're doing that are newsworthy,' Sendit founder Hunter Rice told TechCrunch in 2022 when confronted about these practices. 'You're welcome to have your fun with this topic, but I'm only interested in talking about real news.' That dismissive attitude now looks tone-deaf in light of federal enforcement action.