Govt sharpens antitrust attack against Facebook with filing

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators sharpened their antitrust attack against Facebook on Thursday, filing a revised version of their complaint alleging that the social network giant has abused its market power to suppress competition.

It was the second try by the Federal Trade Commission, after a federal judge in June dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the agency and a broad coalition of state attorneys general, amid multiplying efforts by federal and state regulators to rein in tech titans’ market power.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had ruled that the suits were “legally insufficient” and didn’t provide enough evidence to prove that Facebook was a monopoly. The ruling dismissed the FTC’s complaint but not the case, giving the agency a chance to file a revised complaint.

Boasberg had said the FTC fell short of demonstrating that Facebook holds monopoly market power, failing to provide an estimate for the company’s market share over the past ten years.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/govt-sharpens-antitrust-attack-against-facebook-with-filing/ar-AANvtIS?li=BBnbfcQ&ocid=DELLDHP

[Tadpole Raisin]

1. Not enough proof?

Do we have to redefine monopoly?

[cstanleytech]

2. "Do we have to redefine monopoly?" Probably if such cases are against companies on the internet.

Why? Because unlike the issues with the original AT&T controlling virtually all the physical phone lines there is honestly nothing truly standing in the way of a company replacing a virtual one like Google or Facebook.
Look at MySpace which at one time was huge and how it got replaced by competition.

[elleng]

6. MARKETS have changed significantly,

so the substance within the definition has to be redefined; it is, within each new case.

[TheFarseer]

3. I'm all for trust busting

But Facebook? I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook wasn’t even around in 10 years. Yet no one goes after Amazon!?

[elleng]

5. NYT: '*But the updated suit is nearly twice as long and includes more facts

The suit submitted Thursday contains the same overall arguments as the original, saying that Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were made to create a “moat” around its monopoly in social networking and arguing that the social network should be broken up. But the updated suit is nearly twice as long and includes more facts and analysis that the agency says better support the government’s allegations.

“Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile,” Holly Vedova, the acting director of the bureau of competition at the agency, said in a statement. “After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat.”

Facebook responded: “There was no valid claim that Facebook was a monopolist — and that has not changed. Our acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were reviewed and cleared many years ago, and our platform policies were lawful.” . .

His decision presented the first major test for Lina Khan, the F.T.C. chair, who was only days into her role at the time. Ms. Khan represents a wave of new thinking about the industry among administration officials and many lawmakers, arguing that the government needs to take far more aggressive action to stem the power of technology giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. President Biden has appointed multiple regulators with similar aims and lawmakers proposed updates to antitrust laws to target the power of technology companies.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/technology/ftc-facebook-antitrust.html

[Tadpole Raisin]

7. Good!

I can’t remember the last time we broke up a monopoly. Please don’t tell me it was Ma Bell into the 4 regional companies. I remember those against it screamed the sky would fall. Nope, not even close.

I’d like to see breakups again.