4.50pm EST16:50
House passes one-week spending bill
3.56pm EST15:56
Hunter Biden says his tax affairs are being investigated
3.15pm EST15:15
Fresh efforts to break up Facebook
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Pennsylvania governor tests positive for coronavirus
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Austin: ‘I come to this new role as a civilian leader’
1.47pm EST13:47
Biden formally introduces defense secretary nominee
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Kamala Harris named third most powerful woman in the world
4.50pm EST16:50
House passes one-week spending bill
4.43pm EST16:43
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at 4.47pm EST
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3.56pm EST15:56
Hunter Biden says his tax affairs are being investigated
Updated
at 4.42pm EST
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at 3.41pm EST
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Fresh efforts to break up Facebook
The US Federal Trade Commission and a big coalition of states sued Facebook this afternoon, saying that the huge social media company broke US antitrust law.
The FTC said in a statement that it would seek an injunction that “could, among other things: require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp.”
In its complaint, the coalition of 46 states, Washington DC and the territory of Guam also asked for Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to be judged to be illegal.
The antitrust lawsuits were announced by the FTC, the federal regulators, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“It’s really critically important that we block this predatory acquisition of companies and that we restore confidence to the market,” James said during a press conference announcing the lawsuit, Reuters and the Associated Press report.
In its lawsuit, the FTC is seeking the separation of the services from Facebook, saying Facebook has engaged in a “a systematic strategy” to eliminate its competition, including by purchasing smaller up-and-coming rivals like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
James echoed that in her press conference, saying Facebook “used its monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”
Facebook is the world’s biggest social network with 2.7 billion users and a company with a market value of nearly $800bn whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the world’s fifth-richest individual and the most public face of “Big Tech” swagger.
Facebook did not have immediate comment.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com