Facebook has been in the news very actively as of this time frame for a whole lot of different reasons, but such things are common when you are a flourishing social giant with followers in over millions. Apart from just being in the news, you acquire a whole lot of people who cannot accept some of your policies and something just like this happened very recently with the social media giant.
The US Federal Trade Commission accused Facebook of some monopolistic behavior. Facebook had acquired both Instagram in 2012 for 1 billion dollars and WhatsApp in 2014 for 12 billion dollars under its name, and pulling a strand from this the FTC has accused that the reason for which Facebook has acquired these two companies is that because they were afraid of the growing competition the market that was being brought by these two apps which could potentially lead to the downfall of Facebook from its ruling power and under this threat the tech giant decided to acquire both the companies.
The case was also filed against the fact that Facebook also had changed some of the policies of these two applications after its acquirement so that it does not collide with those of Facebook and it can run as a superior independent application.
Upholding all these statements, FTC filed a complaint against Facebook and mentioned in their report that Facebook should let both Instagram and WhatsApp be independent applications and release its hold over them in order to maintain a positive competition in the market.
The case was filed at the end of last year in December and the verdict has just come out.
The verdict was called out on Monday by District Judge James Boasberg who stated in this statement that the evidences brought about by FTC were not enough to force Facebook to let go of its acquired companies and though their might be instances where Facebook had violated the anti-laws or was playing a monopolistic behavior, but all this could be acted against at the time when Facebook did it and not after that.
The statement was in consideration of the fact that FTC had provided all evidences from 2013, which in today’s year is a little too old.
However, though the case has been dismissed as of now, it has not been entirely closed as the court has given FTC a 30-day time limit to file another complain with solid proofs, failing to do so within this time may officially bring the case to an end.
Read next: Facebook's New Survey Highlights How the Global Pandemic Has Changed the eCommerce Business World
The US Federal Trade Commission accused Facebook of some monopolistic behavior. Facebook had acquired both Instagram in 2012 for 1 billion dollars and WhatsApp in 2014 for 12 billion dollars under its name, and pulling a strand from this the FTC has accused that the reason for which Facebook has acquired these two companies is that because they were afraid of the growing competition the market that was being brought by these two apps which could potentially lead to the downfall of Facebook from its ruling power and under this threat the tech giant decided to acquire both the companies.
The case was also filed against the fact that Facebook also had changed some of the policies of these two applications after its acquirement so that it does not collide with those of Facebook and it can run as a superior independent application.
Upholding all these statements, FTC filed a complaint against Facebook and mentioned in their report that Facebook should let both Instagram and WhatsApp be independent applications and release its hold over them in order to maintain a positive competition in the market.
The case was filed at the end of last year in December and the verdict has just come out.
The verdict was called out on Monday by District Judge James Boasberg who stated in this statement that the evidences brought about by FTC were not enough to force Facebook to let go of its acquired companies and though their might be instances where Facebook had violated the anti-laws or was playing a monopolistic behavior, but all this could be acted against at the time when Facebook did it and not after that.
The statement was in consideration of the fact that FTC had provided all evidences from 2013, which in today’s year is a little too old.
However, though the case has been dismissed as of now, it has not been entirely closed as the court has given FTC a 30-day time limit to file another complain with solid proofs, failing to do so within this time may officially bring the case to an end.
Read next: Facebook's New Survey Highlights How the Global Pandemic Has Changed the eCommerce Business World
