WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Trade Commission and a large group of U.S. states on Wednesday asked a federal court to deny Facebook Inc.’s request to dismiss major antitrust lawsuits filed against the social media giant in December.
The FTC, in its presentation, said Facebook bought an Instagram photo-sharing app because CEO Mark Zuckerberg believed it was “a big, viable competitor” and bought the WhatsApp messaging app to neutralize a nascent threat . The FTC has asked the court to order Facebook to sell these assets.
The states, which had filed a separate antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, said in their filing: “Deploying a scheme of buying or burying predatory acquisitions and foreclosure behaviors, Facebook successfully crushes, suppresses, and deters competition, consolidating its day monopoly power “.
Facebook had asked the court to dismiss the two lawsuits, alleging that they were brought “in the midst of a relentless critique of Facebook for matters completely unrelated to antitrust concerns.”
He also said the states, in their case, did not show that they were harmed by Facebook and that they were waiting too long.
The FTC and states accused Facebook of violating antitrust law to keep smaller competitors at bay and face rivals, such as Instagram for $ 1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 for $ 19 billion.
All in all, the federal government and states filed five lawsuits against Facebook and Google of Alphabet Inc. last year after bipartisan outrage over the use and misuse of the influence of social media in both the economy and in the political sphere.
Report by Diane Bartz; Edited by Peter Cooney