On Reigning-in Facebook, "Big Tech" and more
Photo by Kvistholt Photography
Last week, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it had “sued Facebook, alleging that the company is illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct.
"In cooperation with a coalition of attorneys general of 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam, the complaint alleges that Facebook has engaged in a systematic strategy [including acquisitions Instagram and WhatsApp] to eliminate threats to its monopoly."
Ian Conner, FTC Director of Bureau of Competition, said: “Personal social networking is central to the lives of millions of Americans ... Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition."
Separately, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the action by the 46 states said, "For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users ...
"We are taking action to stand up for the millions of consumers and many small businesses that have been harmed by Facebook's illegal behavior."
Finally, Jennifer Newstead, Facebook Vice President and General Counsel said “we are aware of the atmosphere in which the FTC is bringing this case. Important questions are being asked about “big tech” and whether Facebook and its competitors are making the right decisions around things like elections, harmful content and privacy.
"We have taken many steps to address those issues, and we’re far from done. We have called for new regulation to address some of them on an industry-wide basis. But none of these issues are antitrust concerns, and the FTC’s case would do nothing to address them. Those hard challenges are best solved by updating the rules of the internet."
OUR TAKE
Scrutiny of "big tech" (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and others) will likely increase – driven by the efforts cited above, as well as initiatives such as the US Congress’ “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets” and the European Union's “Digital Services Act” (which should be released this week).
These oversight efforts will be broadbased - to address concerns including privacy, search, advertising, bias, content moderation. etc.
As interest in reigning in “big tech” has increased, the challenges to this process include determining how much harm has been done – and the types of remedies to apply.