Facebook is asking a federal court to dismiss a revised complaint against it by the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that the agency has not provided enough evidence to show that the company is a monopoly.
In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Facebook said the FTC failed to prove that it has a monopoly in the 鈥減ersonal social networking space鈥 because no reliable data exists to show the size of the market or of Facebook鈥檚 share of it.
鈥淭he FTC鈥檚 fictional market ignores the competitive reality: Facebook competes vigorously with TikTok, iMessage, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and countless others to help people share, connect, communicate or simply be entertained,鈥 Facebook said in a statement. 鈥淭he FTC cannot credibly claim Facebook has monopoly power because no such power exists.鈥
Facebook鈥檚 motion was filed on the day it and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms suffered a worldwide outage. It also came a day after whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, went public on CBS鈥檚 鈥60 Minutes鈥 program to discuss internal documents exposing the company鈥檚 awareness of harms caused by its products and decisions.
A federal judge in June dismissed earlier antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the agency and a broad coalition of state attorneys general that were among multiplying efforts by federal and state regulators to rein in tech titans鈥 market power.
The FTC鈥檚 new, revised complaint filed in August alleges that the social network giant pursued a laser-focused strategy to 鈥渂uy or bury鈥 rivals to suppress competition.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had ruled in June that the FTC鈥檚 original lawsuit was 鈥渓egally insufficient鈥 and didn鈥檛 provide enough evidence to prove Facebook was a monopoly. He dismissed the states鈥 separate complaint outright.
But his ruling only dismissed the FTC鈥檚 complaint, not the case, giving the agency a chance to file a revised complaint. In the new filing, the FTC laid out a detailed analysis to substantiate its monopoly power claim.
鈥淒irect evidence, including historical events and market realities鈥 confirms the allegation, the complaint says. The harm to consumers from the lack of competition 鈥渋s particularly severe,鈥 it says.
The FTC did not have a comment on Facebook鈥檚 motion to dismiss.
鈥 Barbara Ortutay THE ASSOCIATED PRESS