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Regulatory authorities in eight states and the federal district of Columbia have launched an antitrust investigation on Facebook, the Attorney General of New York announced on Friday, the latest initiative taken by government officials to strengthen surveillance of the giants of the United States. technology in America.
"Even the largest social media platform in the world must respect the law and respect consumers," said Attorney General Letitia James of New York in a statement. The Attorneys General of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia join Ms. James.
"We will use all the survey tools at our disposal to determine whether Facebook's actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumer choices or increased the price of advertising," said Ms. James. .
In a statement, Will Castleberry, vice president of Facebook's national and local policies, said the company "will work constructively with state attorneys general, and we welcome an interview with decision makers on the Competitive environment in which we operate ".
The Federal Trade Commission and the Ministry of Justice have taken similar steps to examine how the main players in Silicon Valley have accumulated market power and whether they have acted in ways that reduce competition.
The Congress explores the same issues, with officials from Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google – the four companies covered by the Justice Department report – appearing at an antitrust hearing in Washington in July. Another hearing is scheduled for next week.
State regulators, generally acting in concert with federal officials, can play an important role in major antitrust investigations. That was the case in the historical antitrust case against Microsoft, when 20 states joined the Department of Justice to sue the software giant in 1998.
Unlike this case, the current antitrust issues go far beyond a single company. The Department of Justice, for example, focuses on companies that operate in somewhat different markets and have come to dominate them, including Internet search, online advertising, e-commerce and social networking.
The US-led antitrust investigation once again places the social media giant at the center of regulators' concerns.
In July, the Federal Trade Commission voted to fine the company about $ 5 billion for mishandling users' personal information, the biggest penalty ever imposed by the agency on a technology company. Also in July, Facebook representatives had to face Congress for two days about a new cryptocurrency initiative called Libra.
The state-led antitrust investigation could evolve in several directions. This could, for example, align with the commercial commission's investigation, which aims to determine whether what critics have called Facebook's "serial defensive acquisitions program" has been used to maintain the dominance of the society in the social networking sector.
Facebook bought Instagram, the photo-sharing network, for $ 1 billion in 2012. Just two years later, Facebook was spending $ 19 billion for WhatsApp, a global email application used by over a billion of people.
Critics say that well before the two acquisitions, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and managing director, was keeping a close watch on young companies that could pose a threat to his business. Facebook has acquired more than 70 companies in about 15 years.
This is a story in development. It will be updated.
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