Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified this week before the Federal Trade Commission as part of the regulator’s ongoing anti-trust investigation into the company, according to a new report from Politico Thursday.
The FTC has been investigating Facebook for at least a year for possible violations of U.S. anti-trust law. Facebook announced in July 2019 that the agency had launched a probe into the company as part of its quarterly revenue streams. According to Politico, that investigation is still ongoing, and Zuckerberg testified under oath over the course of two days this week as part of the probe.
“We intend to cooperate with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s investigation and answer any questions the Agency may have,” a Facebook Company spokesman said. The edge Thursday. The FTC declined to comment.
Facebook is among several anti-trust polls outside the FTCs. Last September, a coalition of State Attorneys General, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, opened an investigation into the social media industry. Since last year, the House Judiciary Committee has been investigating major tech companies, including Facebook. Just last month, that House panel held a hearing where Zuckerberg testified, along with the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, and Google.
In 2019, the FTC fined Facebook $ 5 billion as a result of a years-long investigation into the company’s relationship with political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica and other privacy breaches.
Throughout the hearing, Zuckerberg raised serious questions about Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) digs into Zuckerberg over text messages the commission received suggesting he threatens to copy Instagram as a new Facebook product if photo-sharing app co-founder Kevin Systrom does not agree to it to sell to the social media giant.
“If the dominant platform threatens its potential rivals, that should not be normal business practice,” Jayapal said during its July hearing.
