«Facebook has ensured that any company that innovates is simply destroyed. Copy, kill or acquire — that`s Facebook`s modus operandi,» Hubbard said. «It`s a big problem. I think we are finally turning the tide and reviving our antitrust laws. Everyone will benefit if we have competitive and functional markets. With WhatsApp, for example, antitrust investigators took over Facebook`s earlier promise to users that it would preserve the messaging company`s independence and privacy, according to the three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. But Facebook backtracked after buying the company in 2014 and recently tried to integrate its users` data with the social networking site`s other services, sparking global concern given the company`s past privacy violations. Concerns that Facebook has become too powerful come as Washington tries to curb Silicon Valley. The Justice Department beat Google with an antitrust lawsuit earlier this year. In particular, the state lawsuit should assert that Facebook`s purchase of Instagram, a photo-sharing app, and WhatsApp, a messaging service, marked a pattern of behavior to neutralize competitive threats — allowing Facebook to become a market leader and deprive users of alternatives to protect privacy. Backstory: Iowa among states launching antitrust investigations against Facebook and Google The decisions have been a blow to attempts to curb Big Tech.
The judge said one of the Federal Trade Commission`s complaints lacked facts and gave the agency 30 days to resubmit it. «The court dismissed the F.T.C case. because under our current antitrust laws, it wasn`t clear that Facebook had a monopoly on online networks — a surprising claim given Facebook`s strong influence on consumers, their data, and the social media market,» Blumenthal said. «Ultimately, this antitrust lawsuit is based on public and high-profile behavior, almost all of which took place more than six years ago,» he wrote, «before the launch of the Apple Watch or Alexa or Periscope, when Kevin Durant was still playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and when Ebola was the virus that dominated the headlines.» Sally Hubbard, a former antitrust lawyer at the New York Attorney General`s Office and author of the new book Monopolies Suck, said industry viewers have long been critical of Facebook`s aggressive tactics. But state and federal regulators see Facebook`s rise very differently, and their upcoming antitrust lawsuits should detail how the company pursued illegal and anti-competitive tactics to achieve pole position on social media. «I don`t want to have a big lawsuit against our own government,» Zuckerberg told employees in response to calls to dissolve the company, according to a transcript of an internal meeting the Verge received. «But look, at the end of the day, when someone tries to threaten something so existential, you go to the mat and you fight.» Forty-six attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against Facebook on Wednesday, accusing the social media giant of anti-competitive acquisitions. The states are coordinating their lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission, which joined attorneys general last year, to launch an investigation into Facebook. The agency also plans to file as early as Wednesday, the sources said, and its case is expected to at least follow the broad outlines of the states` demands, which the Washington Post first reported last month. The company has taken a similar approach to WhatsApp, the lawsuit says.
In April 2012, shortly after Facebook bought Instagram, Zuckerberg wrote, «I actually think messaging is the most important app on any phone. It may not be the largest company, but it`s almost certainly the most used app, and so it`s a critical strategic point for us,» the lawsuit says. Since we bought Instagram (and extended the closing date!), I now feel like we`re ahead in photos, but increasingly late in news,» Zuckerberg continued, according to the lawsuit. In Germany, antitrust authorities` efforts to crack down on Facebook`s data collection practices have stalled in court. And Google has used appeals to challenge three decisions by EU regulators that it violated antitrust laws, resulting in billions of dollars in fines and orders to change certain business practices. Google said it had respected the verdicts while appeals were ongoing. Courts could pursue a number of appeals to deal with claims against Facebook The 48 attorneys general — representing the 46 states representing the District of Columbia and Guam — who are involved in the lawsuit and federal investigators have been investigating Facebook for more than a year. .