Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

ftc.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 736 posts

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#211

Post by KaiserPro »

mrlala wrote: post #163
bilal4hmed wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Line, Viber, Telegram, Signal, Matrix etc etc.....there is so much competition in the messaging space.

WhatsApp is basically the norm outside of the US from what I can tell? So yeah, there's really no "competition". Either you have whatsapp or you don't talk to people. And it's highly used for cross-business communication in Europe, I can tell you that.

> WhatsApp is basically the norm outside of the US from what I can tell?

Which would mean that the lawsuit would fail. pretty much everything that happens outside of the USA is irrelevant for this lawsuit.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#212

Post by nr2x »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #197
bawolff wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In hindsight, i think a big part is that myspace's reach extended mostly to early adopter internet users. Early adopters jump on ships early, but also jump off easily too. Once everyone's parents and grandparents jumped on to facebook, that's a much better moat. FB buying up the competition probably helped too.

> FB buying up the competition probably helped too. Which the FTC could have stopped at any time.

The prior administration was very cosy with Google and Facebook, which helped even more.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#213

Post by uoaei »

baby wrote: post #193
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an ideal world, I'd like both. Mandated interoperability would help a great deal—but I also don't believe Facebook should ever have been allowed to buy Whatsapp, and it's worth undoing that.

Why? WhatsApp today is a great messaging app platform with end-to-end encryption.

...and known backdoors, due to their custom implementation of the Signal encryption protocol.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#215

Post by uoaei »

secfirstmd wrote: post #196
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop using their free service and block their Javascript. Don't use apps built with their login framework.

And what about their tracking through a huge chunk of popular websites? Shadow profiles and all kinds of shadey stuff.

Install the uMatrix extension. Blacklist anything from facebook.com and fb.com.

Now their tracking pixels can't see you.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#216

Post by ergocoder »

Erik816 wrote: post #42
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 ....

When they originally happened, people thought Zuck was insane.

Instagram for $1B? WhatsApp for $17B? Really?

FTC definitely isn't competent enough to understand how visionary the acquisition was.

To be fair, not many was that competent. Otherwise, Google and other cash-loaded companies would have acquired these companies with higher offer.

It could have easily been Twitter + Vines + Periscope where the acquired products went nowhere.

It's unfair to Zuck for being very visionary about this. But antitrust isn't about being fair to an individual company...

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#218

Post by uoaei »

nr2x wrote: post #212
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FB buying up the competition probably helped too. Which the FTC could have stopped at any time.

The prior administration was very cosy with Google and Facebook, which helped even more.

And the next one will be too. Harris is a darling of SV giants.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#219

Post by jasonhansel »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #174
ghufran_syed wrote: post #155

I feel like instead of pushing for the companies to separate, congress should pass laws mandating [adversarial interoperability]( https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interopera... ). Then the data (including the social graph) really would belong to the users, and facebook would have to compete with multiple other “social network clients” that would rapidly emerge. Facebook would lose some monopoly profi…

In an ideal world, I'd like both. Mandated interoperability would help a great deal—but I also don't believe Facebook should ever have been allowed to buy Whatsapp, and it's worth undoing that.

Agreed. Federated service or not, no corporation should have that much power.

Re: FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

#220

Post by jasonhansel »

croes wrote: post #175
ghufran_syed wrote: post #155

I feel like instead of pushing for the companies to separate, congress should pass laws mandating [adversarial interoperability]( https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interopera... ). Then the data (including the social graph) really would belong to the users, and facebook would have to compete with multiple other “social network clients” that would rapidly emerge. Facebook would lose some monopoly profi…

You can't really compete with FAANG. They are too big. They just destroy or buy all competitors. Especially Facebook.

That's why we have antitrust laws--and why, on unfortunately rare occasions, we enforce them.
Post reply on HN