Facebook asks judge to dismiss FTC antitrust charges …

Facebook is once again asking a federal judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against the social network. In a new filing, the company argued that the government “still does not have a factual basis to claim monopoly power.”

The FTC initially filed antitrust charges against the company last December. A judge dismissed the complaint in June, saying the government’s case was “legally insufficient”, but gave the FTC a chance to file a new case. The FTC filed a new complaint in August. The amended complaint was based on the same arguments but was more detailed than the original complaint. In it, the government argued that Facebook used its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram to crush rivals it saw as an “existential threat.”

“The complaint alleges that after repeated unsuccessful attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network, Facebook instead resorted to an illegal buying or burying program to maintain its dominance,” the FTC wrote in a statement. at the time. “In the absence of serious competition, Facebook has been able to refine an advertising model based on surveillance and impose increasingly heavy burdens on its users. “

The judge has until November 17 to respond. Even though Facebook succeeds in having the new FTC lawsuit dismissed, the company still faces many more investigations into its policies and practices. European regulators have also opened an antitrust investigation on the social network, and the UK competition watchdog is also reportedly investigating the company. Meanwhile, in the United States, Facebook is still reeling from a whistleblower who provided thousands of documents to Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which it says proves the company “chooses profit over than security ”. The whistleblower, former product manager Frances Haugen, is due to testify at a Senate Trade Committee hearing on Tuesday morning.