A PYMNTS Company

AOC Says Facebook “Should Be Broken Up”

By  |  February 3, 2022
Facebook

Facebook should be broken up, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
“They are acting as an advertiser, they are acting as both platform and vendor, they are … a communications platform, which has historically been a well-established domain of antitrust,” she said in the interview.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    The congresswoman added that because Meta has so many different assets built into one company, the case can be made for breaking up the company and “why they should be subject to antitrust activity.”

    The call to break up Facebook is not new; in 2020, 48 state attorneys general led by New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook in a bid to curtail what they described as the company’s “illegal monopoly” over the social media industry.

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched its own antitrust suit against Facebook in 2020, calling for the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to be unwound. James said the coalition of attorneys general would coordinate with the FTC on ongoing legal action.

    Lawmakers have previously pressed Facebook on its 2012 and 2014 purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp, respectively, which the FTC vetted at the times. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s lawyers have previously defended the company’s purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram.

    Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.