© APNew York State Attorney General Letitia James. Most US states have joined the lawsuit against Facebook.
Forty-eight states and the US government just sued Facebook. Even though it's long overdue, it's a move in the right direction to break up the monopoly Facebook has had for so long.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is joining the states in the antitrust lawsuit using Instagram and WhatsApp as examples.
Ironically, the Attorney General of New York Latitia James made the announcement today: "It's really critically important that we block this predatory acquisition of companies and that we restore confidence to the market."
The Attorney General of New York has been attacking President Trump and his family since she was elected. It's about time she did something worthy of investigating.
Comment: The suit was filed on behalf of 46 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and South Dakota did not join. According to
CBS News:
Both lawsuits cite Facebook's 2012 purchase of Instagram for $1 billion and a $19 billion deal for WhatsApp in 2014 as examples of its efforts to eliminate competitors.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg's view, expressed in a 2008 email, that "it is better to buy than compete," the FTC said in its suit. "To further entrench its position, Facebook has also imposed anticompetitive conditions that restricted access to its valuable platform — conditions that Facebook personnel recognized as 'anti user[,]' 'hypocritical' in light of Facebook's purported mission of enabling sharing, and a signal that 'we're scared that we can't compete on our own merits.'"
For Facebook, the coordinated federal and state lawsuits represent the most aggressive legal action against the company to date by government authorities, culminating a bipartisan campaign to rein in big technology companies. It's the second time in two months that the government has moved against a tech giant.
"It's time that the courts put an end to Big Tech's specious claim that its products are 'free,' so 'consumer welfare' is not infringed upon and the antitrust laws don't apply," Ed Mierzwinski, U.S.
PIRG's* senior director for federal consumer programs, said in a statement. "Actually, consumers pay with our data, through a Big Tech business model of constant corporate surveillance and manipulation."
*Public Interest Research Group
Comment: The suit was filed on behalf of 46 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and South Dakota did not join. According to CBS News: