Facebook Hit with Antitrust Lawsuit That Calls for Breakup with WhatsApp and Instagram

Dec. 10, 2020

“Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition. Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive,”saidIan Conner, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.

The FTC is seeking apermanent injunction that may require Facebook to sell its subsidiaries including Instagram and WhatsApp. It also wants the court to prohibit Facebook from imposing anticompetitive conditions on software developers. Furthermore, the FTC is proposing to make it mandatory for Facebook to seek prior notice and approval for future mergers and acquisitions. Meanwhile, the lawsuit by states wants Facebook to notify them before making acquisitions worth over $10 million.

Responding to the antitrust lawsuit, Facebook said the followingin its blog post:“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.”

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.