US: Dem calls on FTC to probe Facebook’s market dominance

According to a report by the Financial Times, a top Democratic lawmaker has called for an antitrust investigation into Facebook, in the latest sign of the political pressure on the social media giant and the government agencies that regulate it.

David Cicilline, who chairs the House of Representatives’ antitrust subcommittee, on Tuesday, March 19, sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) five commissioners, writing that the agency should investigate Facebook’s acquisitions of rivals Instagram and WhatsApp, its “exclusionary conduct” in relation to former competitors like Vine, and alleged abuses of its monopoly power connected to Facebook’s “widespread commercial surveillance” of its users.

“The FTC is facing a massive credibility crisis,” said Mr Cicilline in an accompanying New York Times op-ed, arguing that the agency had “enabled Facebook to extend its dominance” by failing to take action in the past.

Earlier this month, Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator and presidential candidate, vowed to break up Facebook, along with Amazon and Google, if she prevailed in the 2020 election.