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A big part of anti-trust law in the US is that natural monopolies are permitted - you can build a business that dominates your market segment and not be subject

A big part of anti-trust law in the US is that natural monopolies are permitted - you can build a business that dominates your market segment and not be subject to anti-trust proceedings, but you cannot use that natural monopoly to advantage your other lines of business by providing them with exclusive, preferred or other special treatment in said natural monopoly. This was the crux of US vs. MSFT. The argument here is that Facebook is a natural monopoly and by only allowing Instagram to post automatically to a users timeline, they are leveraging that legal natural monopolies power to advantage Instagram.

genericid 8y ago
"Natural monopoly" does not mean that.
bena 8y ago
What does Facebook have a monopoly on? Microsoft had a monopoly on the retail operating system space and leveraged that monopoly to force vendors into bad positions that excluded other operating systems a shot on a fair market. They also used their position to push their products to the detriment of other competitors. As far as I can tell, Facebook just has a monopoly on Facebook. Which is to be expected since Facebook is Facebook.
- bwilliams18 8y ago
  I should have included this in my parent comment: this is the argument regarding facebook's activities being anti-competitive; I don't necessarily believe this argument to be true. I really don't have a position on it in either direction at this time.
  - bena 8y ago
    Then that doesn't really help anything here. I asked how would this trigger anti-trust proceedings because Facebook is not abusing a monopoly position, they're just not letting other services post to their site. You responded by basically saying "Yeah, but people think they are". Which really doesn't address anything. So I asked more directly what do they have a monopoly on. I know people think they're a monopoly. I think those people are wrong. At least until they can tell me a monopoly on what.
- genericid 8y ago
  Facebook has a monopoly on social networks used to communicate with people you know IRL.

genericid 8y ago

"Natural monopoly" does not mean that.

bena 8y ago

What does Facebook have a monopoly on? Microsoft had a monopoly on the retail operating system space and leveraged that monopoly to force vendors into bad positions that excluded other operating systems a shot on a fair market. They also used their position to push their products to the detriment of other competitors. As far as I can tell, Facebook just has a monopoly on Facebook. Which is to be expected since Facebook is Facebook.

bwilliams18 8y ago
I should have included this in my parent comment: this is the argument regarding facebook's activities being anti-competitive; I don't necessarily believe this argument to be true. I really don't have a position on it in either direction at this time.
- bena 8y ago
  Then that doesn't really help anything here. I asked how would this trigger anti-trust proceedings because Facebook is not abusing a monopoly position, they're just not letting other services post to their site. You responded by basically saying "Yeah, but people think they are". Which really doesn't address anything. So I asked more directly what do they have a monopoly on. I know people think they're a monopoly. I think those people are wrong. At least until they can tell me a monopoly on what.
genericid 8y ago
Facebook has a monopoly on social networks used to communicate with people you know IRL.