The Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of almost all state attorneys-general have sued Facebook for violation of the Sherman and Clayton antitrust acts over its ownership of WhatsApp and Instagram.
The FTC lawsuit was announced on Wednesday, as New York AG Letitia James made public that 47 of her colleagues from 45 states – as well as the District of Columbia and Guam – were launching a separate antitrust challenge before a DC federal court.
Any efforts to “stifle competition, hurt small business, reduce innovation and creativity, cut privacy protections, will be met with the full force of our offices,” James told reporters.
The lawsuit managed to unite Democrats and Republicans who are currently at odds over the US presidential election. Only four states – Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and South Dakota – have not signed on to the effort led by James, a Democrat.
Plaintiffs accused Facebook of having “monopoly power in the personal social networking market” in the US over the past decade, and illegally maintaining it by “deploying a buy-or-bury strategy that thwarts competition and harms both users and advertisers.”
