Facebook has come under fire in the United States for anti-competitive practices. The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states alledges that the socila media giant has become a monopoly by gobbling up its competitors, namely Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
Though FTC did not block both acquisitions then, it has now joined forces with the states to sue Facebook for being a monopoly with the goal of breaking up the company. They want Facebook to sell off the companies and change its policies on dealing with third party developers.
The lawsuits have been brewing for more than a year and are expected to last for a while as Facebook is likely to fight back hard. With its financial clout, the social media king can dig in and make the battle hard for the govenment.
In response, Facebook has called the exercise “revisionist history” and stated that “this is simply not how the antitrust laws are supposed to work.”
“Facebook as we know it today would not have been possible without US laws that encourage competition and innovation. We’ve been successful because we’ve made risky bets, invested, innovated and delivered value to people, advertisers and shareholders,” said Jennifer Newstead, Vice President and General Counsel of Facebook in a statement.
“We have operated and continue to operate in a highly competitive space. Our acquisitions have been good for competition, good for advertisers and good for people. We look forward to our day in court, when we’re confident the evidence will show that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp belong together, competing on the merits with great products,” she added defiantly.
Entelechy Asia 