U.S. trade board sues Facebook for social media monopoly Court claims separate Instagram and Whatsapp

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), together with prosecutors from 46 states and 2 Special Administrative Regions. Filing a lawsuit against Facebook monopoly and anti-competition And it is the first time that Facebook has been sued by the government.

The FTC accused Facebook of trying to destroy rivals and competition. Both from the 2012 acquisition of Instagram, both destroying competitors and blocking other operators to compete. The same goes for the purchase of WhatsApp in 2014, destroying competitors in the market, allowing Facebook to continue to grow and generate more profits. In an unparalleled market environment

Another reason why the FTC accuses Facebook is that it imposes terms of using Facebook’s software through an API (Application Programming Interface) that prohibits developers or other companies from connecting. Developing features that compete with Facebook, such as not allowing Twitter’s Vine app to connect APIs to Facebook to retrieve friend lists.

The FTC’s proposal is to demand a court order separating Instagram and WhatsApp from Facebook, forcing the court to issue an injunction against Facebook to issue a monopoly on use of the API. Future acquisitions must be informed in advance and obtain prior approval.

Facebook responded that the FTC acted unfairly. Because the above acquisitions have all been certified by the relevant government agencies. This includes the FTC itself. In the case of Facebook’s API terms, this is normal in the industry. Other technology companies like LinkedIn, The New York Times, Pinterest and Uber have policies like this.

The origin Facebook, nytimes