The Federal Trade Commission refiled its antitrust suit against Facebook on Thursday amid a Facebook marketing frenzy. It claimed that the company holds monopoly power and that it maintains that monopoly through systematic purchases of rivals and other barriers to competition.
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As it seeks to end the dominance of tech companies that have dominated American life, the FTC's first major battle is the refiled lawsuit. It will also be a test for Lina Khan, the new chair of FTC, who was vocal in her criticism of Big Tech in her academic work and whom Facebook suggested should withdraw from that work.
Facebook is the most popular online social network with more than three billion users. Facebook has maintained its monopoly position by following Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg's 2008 strategy: It is better to compete than buy, according to the FTC complaint. Facebook has been tracking potential competitors and buying companies it considers to be serious threats to its competitive position. Facebook added anticompetitive conditional deals policies to its anticompetitive acquisition strategy. These policies were designed to create or maintain entry barriers, and to neutralize perceived threats to competition.
Many people expected the news of the refiled suit to be announced amid a marketing campaign by the company. This included the release of a new transparency document about the most popular content on its platform, and the launch of a virtual reality area where Oculus VR headset users can remotely attend meetings.
The complaint states that no other social networking service provider in the United States can come close to Facebook's size.
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Facebook did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The company owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as WhatsApp and WhatsApp. These are two most popular platforms in the world and prime examples of how the company uses its enormous resources to dominate social media.
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After a June federal judge dismissed the FTC's original complaint against Facebook, the FTC was forced by Facebook to file a new lawsuit. The motion to dismiss was granted by Facebook on the grounds that the government suit did not adequately support the FTC's claims that Facebook is a monopoly.
Below is the complete FTC v. Facebook antitrust case
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This is an ongoing story.
