US Department of Justice to open antitrust investigation on Facebook

The US Department of Justice plans to join the growing group of agencies investigating Facebook for violating antitrust laws.

Bloomberg and Reuters reported Wednesday that each had been informed by a source that the Justice Department would soon open an antitrust investigation on the social media company.

This would only add to Facebook's regulatory struggles, which arise as large technology companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple are subjected to increased state and federal oversight, while the authorities and the general public are becoming more aware of the growing influence of these companies on the market and of consumer protection. .

The Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, the Federal Trade Commission and a group of attorneys general headed by the Attorney General of New York State, Letitia James, are already investigating Facebook.

Publicly, it is unclear on what will focus the investigation of the Department of Justice.

In July, the Justice Department announced that it had launched an extensive investigation into "market-leading online platforms" to determine whether they "indulged in practices that have reduced the competition, hindered innovation or harmed consumers'. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time when the Justice Department had recently held closed-door hearings, lawmakers had garnered testimonials from Facebook critics.

Facebook has not responded to a request for comment from Gizmodo.

The Judicial Committee examines whether Facebook – as well as Google, Amazon and Apple – have engaged in anti-competitive behavior. The Consortium of Advocates General is trying to determine if Facebook is endangering consumer protection and limiting consumer choice. The Wall Street Journal announced last month that the FTC was studying Facebook acquisitions. In the last 15 years, Facebook has acquired approximately 90 companies, including WhatsApp and Instagram. And despite heightened control over his competitive practices, he showed no sign of slowing down in his mission to swallow everything up. Just this week, the social media giant has bought a CTRL-Labs, a start-up focused on brain scanning technology, for an amount between $ 500 million and $ 1 billion.

The anonymous source told Bloomberg that the Department of Justice was looking at a different behavior than the one the FTC is investigating. When the FTC fined Facebook in July, the company's stock rose by 1.8%. One of the other surveys may help consumers more than Facebook.