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Facebook's plan to integrate Instagram and WhatsApp more closely could hinder any attempt to dismantle the social media giant, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons told the Financial Times on Monday.
Simons said all options were on the table while the FTC was investigating Facebook for potential antitrust violations, but added that any attempt by Mark Zuckerberg to combine the three major brands of the social media company could complicate all cases, according to the FT report.
"If they maintain separate structures and commercial infrastructure, it is much easier to make an assignment in these circumstances than in cases where they are completely entangled and all the eggs are scrambled," Simons said. FT.
Read more: A great technology warned by the highest regulator: we will break you if we have to do it
Regulators around the world are closely monitoring data privacy practices and how their subsidiaries, WhatsApp and Instagram, handle personal data.
Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, and each is now used by more than a billion people.
Last month, Facebook said it would pay a $ 5 billion fine to resolve a government investigation of its privacy practices and strengthen user data protection measures.
The investigation was triggered by allegations that Facebook allegedly violated a 2012 decree by inappropriately sharing information belonging to 87 million users with the now-defunct British policy cabinet of the United Kingdom. Cambridge Analytica.
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