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FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

ftc.gov

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Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#41

Post by claudeganon »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

Key line: > The FTC is seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that could, among other things: require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp

Will splitting off Instagram make a meaningful difference given how little protections there are around selling advertising data?

I agree we would’ve been better off if they had never been allowed to buy Instagram AND we had meaningful laws in place, but I don’t see how this fundamentally changes things given where we are now.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#42

Post by Erik816 »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

Key line: > The FTC is seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that could, among other things: require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp

If only there were some kind of federal agency, maybe a "trade commission" that could have blocked these mergers when they originally happened ....

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#43

Post by CPLX »

Daho0n wrote: post #12

And nothing will come of this except a slap on the wrist. I have more faith in the EU if fines are to be made big enough to make any difference at all.

Arguable. The antitrust cases against MS had a real and profound effect on the development of the first round of internet companies in the late 90's and early 2000's, even though it never went to a trial and verdict.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#44

Post by paulpauper »

lbsnake7 wrote: post #30

When Facebook first went public, an older relative asked me if he should invest in Facebook. My only insight was being an internet user at the time and I said no, there was no reason that Facebook wouldn’t be another MySpace. Facebook's only value was their users and users were historically very finicky and moved around platforms at will. I argued that Facebook would make no money and wouldn’t be around in a couple o…

lol should have consulted me. been bullish on long on FB since the $30s . Facebook was greatly profitable from the start. Fakebook's ad platform is a money-printing machine, similar to that of Google. Buying Instagram sealed the deal, killing its potentially biggest competitor.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#45

Post by gfodor »

cblconfederate wrote: post #31
gfodor wrote: post #27

Instagram and WhatsApp are old news. The big chip on the board is Oculus. If they can get Facebook to sever Oculus (and Facebook "Reality Labs", something probably created ahead of this to blur the lines at bit) it would be a huge step forward to mitigate huge harms to come from Facebook.

doubt it. oculus alone will fade to obscurity

Seems unlikely to me unless you think your children are going to be using computers with flat screens on walls like we do today.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#46

Post by chc »

nickpp wrote: post #35

Monopoly of what? Some other social networks I use every day or so: Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and various forums and communities like this one, which in my mind are pretty similar to a social network. And since WhatsApp is a chat app, how about all the other chat apps I am using? iMessage, Slack, Teams. Does this action has any merit or is it just the usual political posturing and games?

Could the average Facebook user readily replace their use of Facebook with LinkedIn or TikTok? I am not a big user of any of those products, but I have the distinct impression that the answer is no.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#47

Post by jorgenveisdal »

My guess is that this will end up the same was as the Microsoft case. Building network effects is not anti-competitive behavior. FB will argue that they are in fierce competition with Google in the market where they make their revenue, advertising. Not really relevant what the relative market concentration is in other non-revenue generating markets (social networking / search), which are only used to generate attention for the ads they sell in a market where FB's relative market power is < 50%.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#48

Post by paulpauper »

nickpp wrote: post #35

Monopoly of what? Some other social networks I use every day or so: Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and various forums and communities like this one, which in my mind are pretty similar to a social network. And since WhatsApp is a chat app, how about all the other chat apps I am using? iMessage, Slack, Teams. Does this action has any merit or is it just the usual political posturing and games?

Likely just posturing and games. Looking at the share price, the market is not concerned. This is not at all like the DOJ suing MSFT in 1998. Likely FB will settle or it will be forgotten or overturned by incoming Biden admiration.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#49

Post by SkyPuncher »

nickpp wrote: post #35

Monopoly of what? Some other social networks I use every day or so: Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and various forums and communities like this one, which in my mind are pretty similar to a social network. And since WhatsApp is a chat app, how about all the other chat apps I am using? iMessage, Slack, Teams. Does this action has any merit or is it just the usual political posturing and games?

I'll give an easy example: Requiring users to have a Facebook account to use their Oculus device.
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