US FTC eyes split-up of Facebook in major antitrust lawsuit

The US Federal Trade Commission has refiled its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, suggesting the company still operates a monopoly over social media and access to information and has requested for it to be broken up.

Clamping down on its original suit in December, the government body has also suggested the tech giant should also be forced to sell off both Instagram and WhatsApp, which combine into a massive market share within the social media sphere and enables the company to operate a "buy or bury" method of stifling competition.

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The lawsuit alleges that Facebook often abuses its market position to make it difficult for rival companies to compete and comes amid a new wave of scrutiny against Mark Zuckerberg and his platform over supposedly stifling freedom of expression.

Facebook purchased Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Zuckerberg has been looking to integrate the apps more thoroughly for ease of use, but this could also make it more difficult to break the company up.

Facebook dominates the social media market, especially in the US. Its closest competitor, TikTok, has over one billion fewer users according to one data set. Its closest US rival, Snapchat, only has 514 million users as of July 2021.

Combined, the three platforms owned by Facebook have over six billion non-unique users.

However, the filing dismisses TikTok as a valid competitor as it primarily operates with users sharing content to users they do not know, like any video sharing site, such as YouTube.

A federal judge dismissed the original suit in June, stating the FTC has not sufficiently relayed evidence to suggest Facebook dominated the social media market.

However, the FTC alleges that the tech giant would continue to "kneecap" rivals should something not be done to stop it.

“Lacking serious competition, Facebook has been able to hone a surveillance-based advertising model and impose ever-increasing burdens on its users,” the FTC said in a statement.

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Holly Vedova, the acting director of the FTC, said: “Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile.

“After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat.”

It also claims Facebook has a "high barrier for entry" for its competitors, owing to the platform requiring users to have an interconnected user base. The company's status as a well-established platform may also disincentivise users from switching, making it more difficult for competition from rival platforms.

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