FTC's lawsuit trying to break up Meta will go on

A federal judge has approved US antitrust regulators' second attempt at a lawsuit to break up Facebook after the FTC refiled an amended complaint.

The FTC's lawsuit against Facebook's parent company, Meta, was given the go-ahead on Tuesday after filing a "more robust and detailed" complaint.

CNN's Brian Fung provided documentation that shows Facebook has once again moved to dismiss the case. The judge didn't buy the company's argument that the new version of the lawsuit is "akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

Here we go: US antitrust regulators' lawsuit to break up Meta, Facebook's parent, can move ahead, judge rules, after the FTC's "more robust and detailed" amended complaint from last year: https://t.co/X45VIP5Yfu pic.twitter.com/iAnCR02J8u
— Brian Fung (@b_fung) January 11, 2022

The lawsuit, which was initially filed in December 2020, accused the social media giant of anti-competitive practices.

The complaint, then and now, alleges that Facebook violated antitrust regulations by purchasing rising rivals Instagram and WhatsApp in an effort to eliminate competition.

However, a federal court dismissed the complaint in June. The main reason for the dismissal was what the judge called a lack of evidence that the company is a monopoly in its market.

After the dismissal, the FTC voted 3-2 to refile the complaint. Notably, FTC Chair Lina Khan did not recuse herself from the vote. Facebook earlier in 2021 petitioned Khan to recuse herself because of past statements she made that were critical of the industry.

Meta again complained about Khan's involvement. However, the judge ruled on Tuesday that she was acting properly in a "prosecutorial" manner.

7 Comments

slow n easy 398 comments · 9 Years

About 2 years ago

I will be very disappointed if they try to break up Apple.

maximara 409 comments · 15 Years

slow n easy said:

I will be very disappointed if they try to break up Apple.

What grounds would the FTC even have to break up Apple? Apple is in no way a monopoly as even the California court in the Epic case said that. In fact, the only thing the California judge could give Epic was by using a really gonzo interpretation of a law that a business lawyer said will likely wouldn't survive appeal (the Ninth circuit put that part of the ruling on hold meaning Epic has basically got nothing).

Never mind that if the FTC really wanted to do its freaking job it would be doing something about the local cable/ISP company monopolies.

viclauyyc 847 comments · 10 Years

Break up Meta is not good enough. They better off just shut down Facebook. It is bad for humanity and mental health.

geekmee 646 comments · 13 Years

viclauyyc said:

Break up Meta is not good enough. They better off just shut down Facebook. It is bad for humanity and mental health.

Uh, that would be outside their scope or constitutional mandate. It’s not their job to protect humanity or mental health.

dinoone 75 comments · 13 Years

geekmee said:

viclauyyc said:

Break up Meta is not good enough. They better off just shut down Facebook. It is bad for humanity and mental health.

Uh, that would be outside their scope or constitutional mandate. It’s not their job to protect humanity or mental health.

Don’t Look Up.