Facebook fends off new anti-monopoly questions after UK email release

In the documents, executives can be seen responding to the threat of competitors, debating how to handle users data, and discussing major changes to its business model.

In all, the cache shows a fact about Facebook thats widely understood, but only occasionally detailed: its decisions have tremendous consequences for businesses that rely on it.The documents are shedding new light on Facebooks market power, and some experts and lawmakers are already accusing the company of breaking anti-monopoly law through its aggressive control of its platform.

When Twitter-owned video app Vine attempted to use Facebook to let users find friends on the platform, Mark Zuckerberg personally sent a terse response when an executive said Facebook planned to shut down the Vine feature.

Vine co-founder Rus Yusupov echoed the feelings of many prominent Facebook critics in a tweet he sent after the documents were released.

Any real enforcement action Facebook could face in response to these allegations would likely come from the Federal Trade Commission. The Justice Department also has jurisdiction to prosecute Facebook if the company is found to have violated antitrust law by suppressing its own competitors.

The Commission found that by bundling features like Googles search engine, Chrome apps, and operating system, the company was illegally taking advantage of its market share. The Commission could pursue a similar action on behalf of the Facebook allegations, but no statements or announcements have been made.

These new documents show clearly that Facebook failed to heed their consent decree agreement and basic standards of privacy.

Original article
Author: Colin Lecher

The Verge was founded in 2011 in partnership with Vox Media, and covers the intersection of technology, science, art, and culture. Its mission is to offer in-depth reporting and long-form feature stories, breaking news coverage, product information, and community content in a unified and cohesive manner. The site is powered by Vox Media's Chorus platform, a modern media stack built for web-native news in the 21st century.

Colin Lecher has recently written 1 articles on similar topics including :
  1. "Seven members have dropped out". (October 14, 2019)
Posted on  ,