Facebook was indicted in a lawsuit this week and as a result could be forced to sell the social networks Instagram and WhatsApp. The antitrust lawsuit is initially filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and followed by a group of 48 attorneys general from various states in the US District Court in Washington D.C.
The accusation against the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg is that the purchase actions of Instagram in 2012 for US$ 1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for US$ 19 billion were planned in a "predatory way" and that in general consists of the idea of building a true monopoly, removing potential Facebook competitors from the scene.
Letitia James, attorney general of New York, is one of those responsible for opening the case against the largest social network in the world, and in her words, she says that Facebook has appropriated the user of social networks in general, to promote its monopoly. and end the competition.
"For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly to destroy smaller rivals and crush competition, at the expense of the average user."
The indictment also includes the information that at the time of the purchase of these social networks, Facebook imposed unfair rules on the software developers of these applications, which would be prohibited from creating similar systems for other companies. Have you ever realized that there really is no such platform as Instagram? What about WhatsApp? Similar messengers exist on the market, but none are as popular as this one.
In the warrant, the FTC seeks in US federal court a ban on rules for program developers and a requirement that the country's regulatory agency review and approve or disapprove of future mergers and acquisitions of companies.
If the outcome of the process is favorable to the accusing party, Facebook will be forced to break its monopoly, and will definitely need to get rid of the Instagram and WhatsApp networks.
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What does Facebook say?
In response, the company said these government actions are part of a "revisionist history" that punishes successful companies, and further confirms that the FTC was already aware of the purchase and confirmed the deals at the time.
Furthermore, social media says that customers are free and are not required to use only the networks that Facebook belongs to, they can opt for another network or service at any time. However, as mentioned before, there is no alternative similar to Instagram, nor any messaging service as popular as WhatsApp.
