The Federal Trade Commission wants to force sale of Instagram and WhatsApp
Summary
- The US competition watchdog can proceed with a breakup lawsuit against Facebook’s owner, a federal judge has ruled.
- Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had asked a court to dismiss an antitrust complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the second time.
- However, Judge James Boasberg said on Tuesday that the FTC’s revised lawsuit should be allowed to proceed.
- Its lawsuit accuses Meta of pursuing a “course of anti-competitive conduct”.
- The FTC originally sued Facebook during the Trump administration, and its complaint was rejected by the court in June last year.