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Editorial: Trustbusters finally come for Facebook

Photo by Jim Wilson of The New York Times / The sign outside Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, is shown on July 15, 2020. The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states accused Facebook on Dec. 9, 2020, of becoming a social media monopoly by illegally squashing competition by buying up its rivals.
Photo by Jim Wilson of The New York Times / The sign outside Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, is shown on July 15, 2020. The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states accused Facebook on Dec. 9, 2020, of becoming a social media monopoly by illegally squashing competition by buying up its rivals. Photo by Jim Wilson of The New York Times / The sign outside Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, is shown on July 15, 2020. The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states accused Facebook on Dec. 9, 2020, of becoming a social media monopoly by illegally squashing competition by buying up its rivals.

By New York Times editorial board 5 min read

Facebook, like other big tech firms, has sought to maintain its dominance, and to keep profits rolling in, by gobbling up any upstarts that have threatened its market power. The company’s view of competition can be summed up by an email sent in 2008 by its chief executive and founder, Mark Zuckerberg: “It is better to buy than compete.”

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission, as well as 48 attorneys general, filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court against the company alleging its history of buying out competitors amounts to an illegal effort to maintain its monopoly. The suits also call for a breakup of the Silicon Valley firm, particularly Instagram and WhatsApp. The lawsuits, coupled with an October Justice Department case targeting Google, represent the most meaningful attempts to check Big Tech’s power in two decades.

Regulators could have imposed conditions on or even prevented Facebook, Google and others from pursuing deals that solidified their dominance. But they didn’t, and now they’re seeking to correct their apparent mistakes.

While the forced calving off of WhatsApp or Instagram would be a dramatic step, the plaintiffs’ desire for Facebook to undergo stricter review for future acquisitions may have the longest lasting impact on antitrust enforcement. With hoards of cash, companies like Google and Facebook have been particularly acquisitive, snatching up smaller firms seemingly at will.

Faced in 2012 with the threat of competing with Instagram for photo sharing and, two years later, WhatsApp for messaging, Facebook simply opened its checkbook.