It’s absolutely essential for a human being to have some freedom around their actions. This breathing space is what shapes the kind of mindset and personality we go for over the long-term. Now, while the freedom is critical to us, we haven’t quite always made a good use of it. You see, with so much riding on what we get from our actions here, we, at times, try rather unscrupulously to swing the odds in our favor. Such a dynamic has been in place for years, and in all honesty, we have largely accepted that we cannot completely eliminate it. However, we still push as far as we possibly can. These remedial attempts are designed and driven by our regulatory bodies, which carry the responsibility to maintain a level-playing field across the board. So far, the setup has worked well, but there were also some notable hiccups along the way. The biggest hiccup, of course, arrived alongside a particular creation called technology. Technology’s expansive nature would go on to spell various troubles for the regulators, as every upgrade on its front made things a wee harder around tasks like spotting inconsistencies and dishing out appropriate actions. However, with governing forces turning more and more active on the tech side, it seems like a shift is waiting to happen. In fact, a recent judgment involving Meta does a lot to validate the belief.
The District of Columbia Judge, James Boasberg has officially given Federal Trade Commission a go-ahead to proceed with an antitrust lawsuit against Meta. It’s a reversal of what happened last year when the court dismissed FTC’s first complaint. According to Boasberg, unlike the commission’s previous complaint, this one appeared “far more robust and detailed.” If we talk about the case, it’s structured within the premise of Meta holding an unlawful monopoly on social networking services following its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. Though, one fact worth noting here is that even with higher authority’s approval, FTC currently faces a long road ahead before it can substantially prove any allegations.
“In stark contrast with its predecessor, this complaint provides reinforcing, specific allegations that all point toward the same conclusion: Facebook has maintained a dominant market share during the relevant time period,” said James Boasberg. “Facebook’s market share comfortably exceeds the levels that courts ordinarily find sufficient to establish monopoly power.”
FTC’s legal attack on Meta is actually one of the many active cases that talk to eliminating Big Tech companies’ monopolistic tendencies from the market, so it remains to be seen how this landscape as whole shapes up in near future.
In response to the recent judgment, Meta responded in the following way:
“Our investments in Instagram and WhatsApp transformed them into what they are today. They have been good for competition, and good for the people and businesses that choose to use our products,” the company said.
