Facebook is asking a federal court to dismiss a revised complaint against it by the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that the agency has not provided enough evidence to show that the company is a monopoly.
In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Facebook said the FTC failed to prove that it has a monopoly in the 鈥減ersonal social networking space鈥� because no reliable data exists to show the size of the market or of Facebook鈥檚 share of it.
鈥淭he FTC鈥檚 fictional market ignores the competitive reality: Facebook competes vigorously with TikTok, iMessage, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and countless others to help people share, connect, communicate or simply be entertained," Facebook said in a statement. 鈥淭he FTC cannot credibly claim Facebook has monopoly power because no such power exists."
Facebook鈥檚 motion was filed on the day it and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms . It also came a day after whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, program to discuss internal documents exposing the company鈥檚 awareness of harms caused by its products and decisions.
A federal judge in June dismissed earlier antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the agency and a broad coalition of state attorneys general that were among multiplying efforts by federal and state regulators to rein in tech titans鈥� market power.
The FTC's new, alleges that the social network giant pursued a laser-focused strategy to 鈥渂uy or bury鈥� rivals to suppress competition.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg that the FTC鈥檚 original lawsuit was 鈥渓egally insufficient鈥� and didn鈥檛 provide enough evidence to prove Facebook was a monopoly. He dismissed the states鈥� separate complaint outright.
But his ruling only dismissed the FTC鈥檚 complaint, not the case, giving the agency a chance to file a revised complaint. In the new filing, the FTC laid out a detailed analysis to substantiate its monopoly power claim.
鈥淒irect evidence, including historical events and market realities鈥� confirms the allegation, the complaint says. The harm to consumers from the lack of competition 鈥渋s particularly severe,鈥� it says.
The FTC did not have a comment on Facebook's motion to dismiss.
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Associated Press Writer Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this story.
Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
