According to a notice from the FTC, the suit involves the company’s Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp services as well as Facebook’s alleged imposition of anti-competitive practices on software developers. The notice goes on to state that the US government seeks an injunction that would force the company to divest from those and potentially other properties and prevent Facebook from acquiring new companies without federal permission. Per the FTC statement: Quick take: It’ll take some further analysis to see how much teeth this thing has considering the US is in a bit of a transitional state right now. At this point, predicting how the lame duck or incoming President’s administrations might play this one is a long shot. But it’s worth mentioning that this is in the court’s hands. The FTC is seeking a permanent injunction in federal courtthat could, among other things: require divestitures of assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp; prohibit Facebook from imposing anticompetitive conditions on software developers; and require Facebook to seek prior notice and approval for future mergers and acquisitions. We’ve reached out to Facebook for more information and will update this article once we have it. Update 2:00 PM PST: Facebook’s response can be found here.
