White House Supports FCC And Facebook Cases To Continue, WhatsApp And Instagram Threatened To Release

JAKARTA - The White House said Wednesday, January 12 that it supports a US judge's decision not to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Facebook.

"Of course we support the district court decision," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. "We've been clear and he (President Joe Biden) has been clear that we need more competition in the tech industry."

As Reuters reports, Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, has asked Judge James Boasberg in Washington, DC, federal court to dismiss a lawsuit in which the government asked the court to sue Facebook sell Instagram and WhatsApp.

The judge said the FTC had a reasonable case and should be allowed to proceed. This is one of the biggest challenges the US government has brought against Big Tech in recent decades.

Meta said it believed the company would win in court, adding that the judge's decision on Tuesday, January 11 had narrowed "the scope of the FTC case".

The judge said the FTC could not bring charges that Facebook refused to allow interoperability permits with competing apps as a way to maintain its dominance. They say the policy was abandoned in 2018 and Facebook's latest enforcement of the policy is even longer.