Facebook asks court to dismiss FTC antitrust complaint

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In a case filed Monday with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Facebook said the FTC “has not alleged any plausible factual basis for labeling Facebook as an illegal monopolist,” calling the agency’s claims. of “litigation-based fiction” that ignores the competition from “burgeoning rivals like TikTok”.

The FTC declined to comment.

The agency filed a new antitrust complaint against Facebook in August after a judge dismissed its initial complaint earlier in the year. The judge argued that the FTC had not provided sufficient evidence that Facebook has a monopoly on social media to justify pursuing the case.

In the revised complaint, which is about 50% longer than the original, the FTC covered many of the same arguments. The FTC continues to claim that Facebook broke the law by engaging in anti-competitive acquisitions, including Instagram and WhatsApp, and denied third-party applications access to Facebook’s platform in an anti-competitive manner. The updated complaint attempted to respond to the judge’s comment that the FTC failed to provide metrics to back up his arguments by referring to the time users spend on Facebook’s platform compared to others. competitors, as well as the number of daily and monthly users of Facebook services.

If successful, the complaint could lead Facebook to separate from Instagram or WhatsApp. It also serves as a high-profile case of Lina Khan, a vocal critic of the tech industry who took over the FTC chairmanship earlier this year.

In its petition, Facebook alleged that even after having had more time to provide facts to support its case against the company, the FTC “did not fail to do so.”

Facebook’s request to dismiss the amended complaint came just before the Oct. 4 deadline to respond. The move also comes a day after a whistleblower who worked at the company released documents that she said show Facebook knows its platforms are being used to spread hatred, violence and disinformation, and that the The company tried to hide this evidence. (Facebook rebuffed the whistleblower’s claims.)

Brian Fung of CNN contributed to this report.

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