The FTC’s Antitrust Case Against Facebook Stakes Out New Ground
The agency wants to break up the social network, a contrast to the DOJ’s more measured strike against Google.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies remotely before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Nov. 17.
Photographer: Hannah McKay/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission jolted the market on Dec. 9 with filings that seek to force Facebook Inc. to sell Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC is trying to achieve something that hasn’t happened in four decades: the breakup of one of America’s biggest companies. The last giant U.S. company to be dismantled was AT&T in 1984.
What makes the case all the more surprising is that it’s the FTC, often criticized for lax enforcement, and not the U.S. Department of Justice pushing for the breakup. “The Facebook case is a really big deal,” says Sam Weinstein, who teaches at the Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. “If we imagine the government winning and breaking up Facebook, that’s a milestone.”