Facebook Asks Court To Dismiss FTC’s Amended Complaint

Facebook on Monday filed a motion to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s amended antitrust complaint against the social network, reported The New York Times.

The amended complaint, filed in August, is focused on the social media giant’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, accusing Facebook of unlawfully maintaining its dominance by acquiring or eliminating companies it sees as competitive threats.

In June, US District Judge James Boasberg dismissed an earlier antitrust complaint filed by the FTC, saying the agency hadn’t provided enough evidence that Facebook has monopoly power in personal social networking.

Facebook on Monday said the amended complaint should “suffer the same fate,” arguing that the FTC can’t credibly claim the social network has monopoly power.

“The FTC’s fictional market ignores the competitive reality: Facebook competes vigorously with TikTok, iMessage, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and countless others to help people share, connect, communicate or simply be entertained,” said a Facebook spokesperson in an emailed statement. “We continuously innovate and improve our products and services to earn people’s time and attention because we have to.”

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