Too Dominant Facebook Forced To Release WhatsApp Or Instagram

Facebook illustration (Irvan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Facebook is faced with a difficult choice. After the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the United States Trade Commission (US) and more than 45 states filed a lawsuit against the social media company.

They forced Facebook to release or sell ownership of WhatsApp and Instagram. The reason for this is because Facebook unfairly dominates the tech industry to fight against rivals or smaller competitors.

"For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals, finish off competitors, all at the expense of everyday users," said New York Attorney General Letitia James, as quoted from The Independent's page, Friday December 11th.

Facebook itself is the second major technology company to face lawsuits this year. After the US Justice Department previously sued Alphabet Inc's Google in October.

The lawsuits highlight a growing bipartisan consensus to hold Big Tech accountable for its business practices, marking a deal between President Donald Trump's administration. Some of the lawsuits include asking Google and Facebook to be dissolved.

"No company should have such unchecked power in terms of our personal and social interactions. That's why we are taking action today," he added.

Following this lawsuit, Facebook also said the acquisition of the WhatsApp and Instagram services had actually received approval from the FTC. Hence, the company considers the use of antitrust laws in this lawsuit to be inappropriate.

In addition, the company said that users can actually switch to another service or product at any time, considering that there are many other competitors. To that end, Facebook said this lawsuit ignores this fact.

Lawsuits Filed by the FTC and the State Attorneys General Are Revisionist Historyhttps: //t.co/DQEr9KKcJu

- Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) December 9, 2020

"Antitrust rules exist to protect consumers as well as promote innovation, not to punish successful businesses," Facebook legal adviser Jennifer Newstead said in a Facebook Newsroom post.

Said, Jennifer, the fusion of WhatsApp and Instagram has made Facebook into a giant tech company. Even the integration of the three services already has more than 1 billion users.

"Unfortunately, this lawsuit misunderstands the landscape of social media and instead offers a distorted view of how companies reach their auidens," he added.