Judge rejects Facebook's request

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that U.S. antitrust authorities can continue their lawsuit against Meta, Facebook's parent company. In doing so, he dealt a blow to the social media giant, which had argued the lawsuit should be dismissed.

The decision allows federal prosecutors to prove their claims that Meta illegally abused a monopoly in the social media market - and that its Instagram and WhatsApp subsidiaries should be spun off. District Judge James Boasberg dismissed the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit last June. At the time, Boasberg said the agency's prosecutors had not done enough to prove that Facebook had a monopoly on social media. However, he left the door open for the FTC to resubmit its lawsuit with amendments.

In August, the FTC re-filed its complaint, with the assistance of its new Chair, tech industry vocalist Lina Khan. Facebook again called on Boasberg to set aside the lawsuit, but in its statement on Tuesday the judge stated that the FTC's "significant additions and revisions" qualify for a continuation of the proceedings compared to its earlier motion.

The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Meta said it was confident the evidence will reveal the fundamental weakness of the FTC's claims. The company also noted that Boasberg described the task facing the FTC as a "big one." The case gives Khan a chance to make a name for herself in her first term as federal regulator. Khan played a key role in initiating the current wave of antitrust investigations into big tech platforms with a 2017 article in the Yale Law Journal highlighting Amazon's dominance. Khan also helped lead a 16-month Congressional investigation into Big Tech while serving on the House of Representatives Antitrust Subcommittee. That investigation led to a landmark report in 2020 that found that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta enjoy monopoly power.

Meta had demanded that Boasberg dismiss the FTC lawsuit on the grounds that, given their previous criticism of big tech companies, Khan should not be able to approve the new lawsuit. Last July, company officials wrote to the FTC asking for Khan to be withdrawn from all matters related to the social media giant, but that didn't stop Khan from voting for the lawsuit to continue in August. On Tuesday, Boasberg sided with the FTC on the issue, stating that Khan had acted "in a prosecutorial rather than a judicial capacity" in their vote.

As with his decision to dismiss the original FTC complaint, however, Boasberg again rejected one of the US government's key claims on Tuesday: that Facebook had anti-competitive controls over how third parties could access the company's data. The alleged abuses were too long ago for the FTC to file a lawsuit now, he said, and the agency is not claiming similar damage is imminent.

Still, the continuation of the lawsuit signals yet another unwelcome investigation for Meta that could potentially end with the spin-off of some of the company's most valuable assets. This would mean a change with monumental consequences for society, given that the tech giant seems to be penetrating every corner of our lives.