Facebook Still Isn’t a Monopoly
A Federal Judge just told us what I’ve been saying all along
A few years ago, after one of the first fireworks-filled Capitol Hill hearings on big tech, I wrote that lawmakers who should know better appeared to have forgotten the definition of a monopoly.
According to US Legal:
“The two elements of monopolization are (1) the power to fix prices and exclude competitors within the relevant market. (2) the willful acquisition or maintenance of that power as distinguished from growth or development as a consequence of a superior product, business acumen or historical accident.”
It’s clear a Federal Judge used on Monday something very close to this definition to throw out the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) roughly six-month-old anti-trust suit. The action he took on the states that tried to band together to contest Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions was a little different. In essence, the group waiting too long. Facebook acquired Instagram almost a decade ago and WhatsApp in 2014.
What the FTC failed to prove, and the judge noted, is that Facebook has a true monopoly in the social media market. As long as Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Discord, Clubhouse, and SnapChat exist and new networks pop up in the market, Facebook will not meet the…
