Zuckerberg testified in July before a panel of the House as part of an anti-trust probe of the tech sector, where he rigidly questioned the company’s purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp. In one threshing exchange asked rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) The question of whether Zuckerberg threatens to copy rivals if they do not agree to sell to the tech giant, and directly read text messages between Zuckerberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom and of messages between Systrom and a venturekapitalist.
Zuckerberg denied that he was Systrom – who sold Instagram to Facebook for $ 1 billion in 2012 in 2012 and left the company in 2018 – as Evan Spiegel, the CEO of rival photo-sharing app Snap. Spiegel has returned reported offers of purchase from Facebook at least twice.
The FTC faced major criticism for failing to interview Zuckerberg – the controlling shareholder of the company alongside its chairman and CEO – as part of an earlier investigation into the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
At a hearing of the House of Representatives’ supervisors, FTC chairman Joe Simons declined to say whether the bureau intended to interview Zuckerberg in its anti-trust probe. But he defended the FTC’s decision not to take an oath under oath in his previous privacy case.
“Sometimes it’s important to fire the CEO, and sometimes it’s not necessary. If it matters, we will do it, ”Simons told senators. In the privacy case, “we had emails from many and many people. We did not need Zuckerberg in a deposit for that case.”
Facebook eventually paid $ 5 billion to regulate that probe and several internal changes, including the establishment of an independent commission to oversee the company’s privacy decisions. The FTC said the regulation would give it “unparalleled access to Facebook’s decision-making.”
“We intend to work closely with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s inquiry and answer any questions the agency may have,” said Facebook spokesman Chris Sgro.
The FTC declined to comment.
