Facebook Lawsuit

[Scholar4Truth]

Looks like Facebook is facing a lawsuit where they might have to sell Instagram and WhatApp due to competition rivals https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-antitrust-facebook/facebook-faces-u-s-lawsuits-that-could-force-sale-of-instagram-whatsapp-idUSKBN28J2UL

[eight bits]

Hmm, I wonder whether this will be yet another thing that goes away on January 20th or soon thereafter.

[Eldorado]

5 minutes ago, eight bits said:

Hmm, I wonder whether this will be yet another thing that goes away on January 20th or soon thereafter.

The lawsuits highlight the growing bipartisan consensus to hold Big Tech accountable for its business practices and mark a rare moment of agreement between the Trump administration and Democrats, some of whom have advocated breaking up both Google and Facebook.

Reuters

[eight bits]

44 minutes ago, Eldorado said:

The lawsuits highlight the growing bipartisan consensus to hold Big Tech accountable for its business practices and mark a rare moment of agreement between the Trump administration and Democrats, some of whom have advocated breaking up both Google and Facebook.

Perhaps so. We'll see.

Politics aside, the defense here isn't trivial (regulatory approval and the brands in question no longer correspond with the entities that were acquired). Even an "adverse" ruling would have an unusually wide range of remedies besides break-up compared with more routine antitrust cases. There's also the additional complication that even "indpendent" digital-world entities have considerable interoperability (e.g. when we embed a YouTube video here at UM). Similar issues, in more elementary form, came up late in the last century in the AT&T breakup.

Oddly enough, the "losing" side made out very well in that one. And it all took a good long while, too. Mustn't forget the trial lawyers' needs. Now there's a bunch of loyal Democrats

Regardless, what the Trump administration agrees with becomes largely irrelevant in a few weeks. I don't see what in my short post merited a "confused" reaction, but I'll live with it somehow. It was just my opinion.

Edited December 10, 2020 by eight bits