FTC refiles antitrust case against Facebook, arguing no social network comes close to its scale

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday refiled a bolstered version of its antitrust case against Facebook in a last-ditch effort to save what has been described as its most important competition lawsuit in decades.Seeking to overcome a judge’s stunning dismissal of its original lawsuit because the FTC had not presented ample evidence that Facebook is a monopoly, the FTC argues in its new filing that Facebook is in a class of its own and shouldn’t be compared to popular apps such as TikTok, Twitter and Pinterest, which attract a public-facing audience. The complaint argues that Snapchat, with tens of millions fewer monthly users than either Facebook or Instagram, is the company’s next-closest competitor.“Without meaningful competition, Facebook has been able to provide lower levels of service quality on privacy and data protection than it would have to provide in a competitive market,” the FTC said in the complaint.Story continues below advertisementFacebook spokesman Christopher Sgro said in a statement that it was “unfortunate” that the FTC decided to proceed with the case. “There was no valid claim that Facebook was a monopolist — and that has not changed,” he said. “We fight to win people’s time and attention every day, and we…
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