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Facebook Faces Federal Monopoly Lawsuit Again

Facebook’s federal government monopoly lawsuit is still pending.It has been clear for years that Facebook is under attack by the federal government. This can be seen in the numerous congressional hearings and the antitrust lawsuit filed against Facebook in December 2020. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), filed the suit against Facebook alleging it to be an illegal monopoly. They also argued that Facebook should be forced out.

Last summer it came to an embarrassing halt when the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decided that the FTC hadn’t actually proven that Facebook was a dominant company. “The FTC has failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish … that Facebook has monopoly power in the market for Personal Social Networking (PSN) Services,” Judge James E. Boasberg wrote in a June 2021 opinion.

He granted Facebook’s motion to dismiss—but left room for the FTC to try again with an amended complaint. Facebook asked again for the dismissal of its motion to dismiss.

Boasberg declined to answer this question.

In its amended complaint, the FTC included “Important additions to and revisions were made in order to correct the Court’s deficiencies. Boasberg writes in his memorandum opinion, “Prior Opinion”Although the core theory behind the suit remains basically unchanged, it is “t”The facts defended this time to support those theories are stronger and more detailed than ever before, especially in relation to the contours Defendant’s alleged monopoly.

The governmentYou may be facing a “It is a daunting task in the future to prove their allegations,” Boasberg notes.It is uncertain whether or not the FTC can prove its case at trial and win summary judgement. 

Boasberg, however, believes that the evidence is sufficient to move forward with the case and not dismiss it. He explains that the holding is a result of several conclusions.

First, The FTC now has enough evidence to support the claim that Facebook is a monopoly. The market leader in PSN service. The company has additionally adequately stated that it is capable of providing PSN service. Barriers to entry in the market protect dominant market shares. The agency also has Also, Facebook possess monopoly powers that are willfully used to its advantage. maintained that power through anticompetitive conduct — specifically, the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. However, the Court won’t allow these allegations to be made. Facebook’s Platform policies, also known as interoperability policy (also called the Platform policies), are moving forward.
Facebook’s policies were abandoned by founders for the exact same reasons that we have already explained. In 2018, the last time it was alleged to have been enforced, it was much further back in the past.

Here is the complete opinion.

My cover story on my bipartisan antitrust battle against Facebook, and other large tech companies provides more detail. ReasonThe July 2021 issue. The article discusses the reasons that both Democrats and Republicans support antitrust measures against tech firms and their rationales.

Other antitrust news

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) is expanding her antitrust obsession to grocery storesInflation has reached its highest level in over 40 years, according to a statement by the company. (Talk about scapegoating business for government failure…). Many people pointed this out. grocery stores haveVery low profit margins. Warren’s argument is also flawed when Warren fails to recognize that there are more choices than ever for groceries.

• The American Innovation and Choice Online Act is getting the Senate Judiciary Committee workup this week. Bill co-sponsor Amy Klobuchar (D–Minn.) The bill will be “implementing common sense rules for technology platforms,” according to its co-sponsor Amy Klobuchar (D.Minn.). We have previously critiqued that bill (alongside other antitrust legislation) and we are raising more questions about it here.


FREE MINDS

It’s not good for civil liberties.Department of Justice (DOJ), has launched a new domestic terrorist unit. Matthew G. Olsen of DOJ’s national security division said yesterday that this group of committed attorneys would focus on domestic terrorist threats and help to ensure these cases get handled correctly and efficiently coordinated across the Department of Justice.

The committee hearing on domestic terror threats led to a heated exchange between Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) and the FBI’s Jill Sanborn, with Sanborn refusing to say whether FBI agents participated in the January 6 Capitol riot last year:

Cruz “lambasted Olsen, Jill Sanborn and the FBI’s head of its national security branch for not answering some questions about Jan. 6 related criminal charges or whether any FBI informants were involved in or encouraged the violence,” Cruz notes. The Washington Post:

“Your answer to every damn question is ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,’ ” Cruz railed at Olsen. To Sanborn, he suggested that undercover FBI agents or informants may have spurred on the rioters — an assertion for which there is no known evidence but which Sanborn would not categorically rule out.

Cruz inquired if it was true, saying, “Ms. Sanborn. A lot of Americans are worried that the federal government intentionally encouraged illegal violent behavior on January 6th.”

She replied, “Not to my knowledge sir.”


FREE MARKETS

Labor market puzzles.We need to understand why so many people have quit their jobs. Douglas Holtz Eakin from the American Action Forum writes, “At this time, there are many conjectures floating around.” The American Action Forum is a centr-right think tank that focuses on economic policies. There was a rumor that at the height of stimulus payments people quit to survive on their paychecks. It is possible to see evidence that people took early retirements, or made reallocations when they relocated during the pandemic. People are often heard talking about changing their priorities, quitting to find a job with a better fit after learning the lessons of the pandemic.

Holtz Eakin suggests that the “main story” is much simpler. “People quit when the labor market gets tight enough that employers are competing for workers and offering more – more wages, more benefits, more flexibility, more whatever – in order to hire them.”

CNBC’s Nick Bunker spoke in November about a similar story. He said that the Indeed Hiring Lab’s director of economic research stated, “The Great Resignation” was more about strong worker demand and not a change of mind for those with higher incomes.

According to government data, however, there is a significant number of workers who have left the labour market. Aren’t they?You are looking for a change of career.


QUICK HITS

• Some interesting new COVID research: “Hemp compounds identified by Oregon State University research via a chemical screening technique invented at OSU show the ability to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from entering human cells.”

• Two Los Angeles police officers who chose Pokémon Go over responding to a robbery have lost their appeal to keep their jobs.

• “The transition to endemicity was always going to be in part a psychological one,” suggests AtlanticSarah Zhang from, said “In which people slowly let loose of the idea COVID must/can be avoided forever.” Omicron simply proved that very quickly.”

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may update guidance to say that not just any old masks will do.

• “A ransomware attack last week has left an Albuquerque area jail without access to its camera feeds and rendered automatic door mechanisms unusable,” The Verge reports.

• North Carolina voters are trying to prevent Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn—an ardent Trump supporter and the youngest member of the current Congress—from running again. According to the lawsuit, “A group consisting of eleven North Carolina voters challenged Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s inability to run for another term. They argued that his participation in a rally prior to the Jan. 6th 2021 riot on Capitol Hill Constitutionally bars him from engaging in any other campaign.” The Hill.