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At a press conference Wednesday, Letitia James, a New York prosecutor, said Facebook uses “large sums of money” to prevent the development of other similar services. At the same time, he confirmed that 48 states have backed a lawsuit against the social media giant for violating US competition law.
In addition to the 48-state lawsuit, the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, also filed a lawsuit against Facebook, writes AP.
Criticisms of Facebook
According to the request, the company is accused of “illegally maintaining the monopoly of its personal social network” through anti-competitive practices. The FTC is also urging the court to force Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp rivals it previously bought.
“Today we are taking steps to defend the millions of consumers and many small businesses that have been harmed by the illegal behavior of Facebook,” Letitia James said at the press conference.
“Instead of competing for merit, Facebook has used its power to pressure opponents to exploit users and earn billions by turning personal data into a source of income,” he continued.
Investigating the tech giants
Today’s news comes after a year of research into the dominance of tech giants in the US market.
A historic step in the investigation was taken last summer, when the leaders of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google were questioned in Congress. The objective was to find out whether the companies had deliberately prevented smaller companies from establishing themselves.
