HARTFORD, Conn. — Federal regulators asked Wednesday for Facebook to be ordered to divest its Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services as the U.S. government and 48 states and districts accused the company of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors.
The antitrust lawsuits were announced by the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Attorney General William Tong announced that Connecticut has joined that bipartisan coalition.
According to Tong's office, the lawsuit alleges that, over the last decade, the social networking giant illegally acquired competitors in a predatory manner and cut services to smaller competitive threats, depriving users from the benefits of competition and reducing privacy protections and services along the way — all in an effort to boost its bottom line through increased advertising revenue.
AG Tong issued the following statement:
"Facebook has used its market power and trove of consumer data to unlawfully acquire and squash its competition. Their exclusionary and predatory conduct suffocates innovation, and stymies small businesses and start-ups from getting their apps off the ground. In the process, the social media titan has degraded consumer privacy and protections. Our lawsuit seeks to end Facebook’s illegal monopoly, including potential court orders to restructure the company and force divesture of unlawfully acquired business."
According to a release, one market participant noted, if an application (app) encroached on Facebook’s turf or didn’t consider selling, Zuckerberg would go into “destroy mode,” subjecting small businesses to the “wrath of Mark.”
With the lawsuit brought by this coalition of states, the court is asked to do the following:
- Halt Facebook’s illegal, anticompetitive conduct and block the company from continuing this behavior in the future.
- Restrain Facebook from making further acquisitions valued at or in excess of $10 million without advance notice to the state of New York and the other plaintiff states.
- Provide any additional relief it determines is appropriate, including the divestiture or restructuring of illegally acquired companies, or current Facebook assets or business lines.
