In December of last year, the FTC unveiled massive antitrust lawsuits against Facebook seeking to have the social media company broken up. The suits accused Facebook of illegally crushing competition, namely the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, on its way to a monopoly. The cases were initially dismissed in late June when a federal judge said the FTC had failed to show that Facebook held a monopoly in the social media market. The FTC has now been given the opportunity of rewriting the lawsuit in hopes of better defining the market in which Facebook dominates. Recently confirmed FTC chair Lina Khan, whose career is defined by her opposition to monopolies, seems perfectly suited to lead this new effort to hold big tech companies in check. Tech companies have filed motions that Khan recuse herself from antitrust probes against them due to her past criticisms of the largest tech firms, while opponents of the tech giants believe they makes her the exact person who should be leading the effort.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
