WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Trade Commission and a large group of US states on Wednesday asked a federal court to reject Facebook Inc.’s request to dismiss major antitrust lawsuits against the social media giant in December.
The FTC, in its case, said Facebook bought the Instagram photo sharing app because CEO Mark Zuckerberg thought it was “a big and viable competitor” and bought the WhatsApp messaging app to neutralize a nascent threat. The FTC asked the court to order Facebook to sell these assets.
States, which filed a separate antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, said in its case: “Implementing a system of buying or burying predatory purchases and exclusionary conduct, Facebook successfully destroys, suppresses and discourages competition, strengthening its monopoly power in this day. “
Facebook asked the court to dismiss the two lawsuits, claiming that they were brought “in the midst of relentless criticism of Facebook for issues unrelated to antitrust concerns.”
He also said that the states, in their case, failed to prove that they were harmed by Facebook and that they waited too long.
The FTC and states have accused Facebook of violating antitrust law to keep smaller competitors at bay and raising rivals, such as Instagram for $ 1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 for $ 19 billion.
In conclusion, the federal government and states filed five lawsuits against Facebook and Google Alphabet Inc. last year, following outrage from bipartisans about the use and misuse of the influence of social media in both the economy and politics.
Reporting by Diane Bartz; Montage by Peter Cooney