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Mark Zuckerberg's failed negotiations with the FTC to end Meta's antitrust case
- neonate 2y agohttps://archive.ph/w58QJ https://archive.ph/w58QJ
- bearjaws 2y agoWhy is a fine even an acceptable resolution? Previously the FTC had been running such that, if it could not prove an acquisition was bad it would approve it. In this case, back in 2012 Instagram was small, didn't charge money, and not considered a competitor to Facebook. Well, we sure as hell know now it was a bad idea. Harmed consumer privacy, removed other competitors, and expanded the network effect of then Facebook. And before anyone says "oh what about YouTube, X, TikTok, competitors" - Yes they should all be split off from their parent companies too.
- paulddraper 2y agoThe FTC signed off on the acquisition. Now they have third party buyers remorse.
- giancarlostoro 2y agoMy favorite was that the deal was where Facebook agreed not to import IG into FB. They have merged the two together so much so that if Facebook has a complete outage, so does IG. Not only that, but Facebook "magically" knows when I'm on IG and vice versa.
- alex1138 2y agoAlso I think if you sign up for Instagram you get Threads lol Nice account you got there, would be a shame if you deleted Threads and also deletes your Insta
- soco 2y agoBut on my Android I got no Threads. True, IG tries their best to convince me to install it. Maybe I don't have it because my IG was created before times?
- transcriptase 2y agoMuch like when a company is acquired and the execs of the acquisition assure everyone that nothing is going to change. Until it inevitably and drastically does because those execs no longer have any real power even if they weren’t explicitly lying.
- tialaramex 2y agoOh yeah, lots of "First Time?" meme opportunities during acquisition.
- granzymes 2y ago>deal was where Facebook agreed not to import IG into FB What deal was this?
- captn3m0 2y agoThis was for WhatsApp
- pdpi 2y ago> They have merged the two together so much so that if Facebook has a complete outage, so does IG. If AWS has a complete outage, so do many completely unrelated businesses. As a regulator, "running on the same infrastructure" would be the least of my worries and an acceptable carve-out for a "no integration" clause.
- zelphirkalt 2y agoRunning on separate infrastructure makes it a lot easier to confirm for an auditor, that data is not being merged or used in combination though.
- notyourwork 2y agoAnd now I’ve noticed threads permeate IG to cross-pollinate.
- joey_spaztard 2y agoAlso, Facebook/Meta said they would not be able to link WhatsApp accounts to facebook accounts. After they were allowed to buy WhatsApp they unsurprisingly began using metadata for things like knowing who Facebook users are talking to. They paid some fines that they show no sign of caring about.
- dtquad 2y agoThis anti-big-tech hysteria in the US is dangerous. Applying early 20th antitrust thinking to modern tech companies is short sighted and doesn't show the whole picture. These American big tech companies that people like Steve Bannon and Lina Khan want to split up have been responsible for not only the impressive US GDP and wealth recovery and growth since the 2008 financial crisis but also for much of the rest of the world's wealth recovery and growth since the 2008 crisis. Danish pension funds have 25% allocation on US stocks but ~70% of the total returns in 2022-2024 came from US stocks with big tech companies leading the charge.
- sc68cal 2y ago"monopolies are good because line goes up"
- dtquad 2y ago>monopolies Where exactly? They lose market share to every new AI wrapper app and most young people are on the Chinese video app. >are good because line goes up The "line goes up" sarcasm really doesn't work when we are actually suddenly in a "line goes down" situation and it clearly sucks.
- officeplant 2y agoThe line going down is just a return to reality hopefully. So many vastly over valued tech stocks and tech adjacent stocks.
- const_cast 2y ago> The "line goes up" sarcasm really doesn't work No it still works, because "but make a lot of money!" is _never_ an acceptable argument for anything. It may be a supplemental argument, but you need something else to be the foundation. Making a lot of money doesn't explain why something is good or why we should do it over other things. I mean, we can make a lot of money through theft, or selling tobacco, maybe legalizing heroin. But those things are bad.
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- drivingmenuts 2y agoI don't think the people running the FTC care what happens so long as they land a huge sum of money to satisfy their boss. I suspect the FTC is not long for this world anyway and after this, it'll be a much more direct threat. Maybe I'm too paranoid and pessimistic, but a year ago that wouldn't even have been a consideration. Now, it's a possibility.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago> “We haven’t been shy about explaining why it doesn’t make sense for the FTC to bring a case to trial that requires it to prove something every 17-year-old in America knows is absurd—that Instagram doesn’t compete with TikTok,” she said. In this hypothetical scenario: 1. Instagram competes with TikTok, winning a minority share of the market. 2. The government decrees that TikTok is anathema and expels them from the market. 3. The government sues Instagram for having a supermajority share of the remaining market. I feel like there should be a form of estoppel preventing the argument.
- dtquad 2y agoMaybe apps that take less than 3 minutes for a 17-year-old to install, register account, and learn how to use, are not really defensible "monopolies" and maybe these apps shouldn't be the target of antitrust laws that were intended for early 20th century robber barons.
- barnabee 2y agoThe network effects, economies of scale, and associated ability to plough huge profits into buying up and out-promoting competitors absolutely make them monopolies.
- specialist 2y ago> I feel like there should be a form of estoppel preventing the argument. Agreed. Alas, our SCOTUS would never limit themselves in that way.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoWhat are you trying to say? Estoppel isn't a limit on the court.
- 9283409232 2y agoIt would be hilarious if Zuckerberg spent all this time kissing Trump's ass only for him to not care and the FTC wins against Meta.
- JustExAWS 2y agoSee Nvidia https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/16/trump_responds_to_nvidias_us/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/16/trump_responds_to_nvi...
- giancarlostoro 2y agoAs your article states, even in 2022 this was done as well. Restricting China from getting top of the line GPUs is nothing new or unique to the current administration.
- JustExAWS 2y agoThe difference is that Nvidia actually worked with the previous administration, had enough time to design chips that met the requirements and wasn’t stuck holding inventory.
- techpineapple 2y agogeez, like three days ago I though NVIDIA was saved, now not, let's see what happens tomorrow.
- 9283409232 2y agoThe sooner big business learns you don't play ball with fascist the better.
- yks 2y agoNot holding my breath, Weimar industrialists were backing the conservative-Nazi alliance until conservatives were all gone. Modern American barons are of the same foreseeing capabilities (unless they’re Thiel who wants monarchy or whatever).
- grg0 2y agoSo weird seeing him dressed up without his redpilled-Zuck-style over-sized t-shirt.
- justonceokay 2y agoEd Hardy isn’t a good look for him
- amazingamazing 2y agojust ban all acquisitions and stop the charades. all acquisitions will be anti competitive if they succeed anyway
- techpineapple 2y agoThat might be amazing.
- semiquaver 2y agoWhat? How would that work?
- jprd 2y agoStartups would try and build a profitable business instead of aiming for an acquisition. Or do you mean preventing the acquisitions in a legal manner?
- esafak 2y agoThere is nothing wrong with acquisitions. It's one way big companies rejuvenate, and startups get a liquidity event. And if it's not an acquihire, the product can get broader distribution. Some companies are started to be acquired; their product of value mostly to big companies.
- soraminazuki 2y agoThat's some euphemistic way of saying that monopolies can get even bigger without even any pretense of competition. We all know where this ends. The monopolists win big and consumers will have to suck it up.
- philipallstar 2y agoNo, it means the company can succeed and the service they built has a chance to continue. The choice isn't "be acquired or enter a Nirvana" it's often "be acquired or die".
- stbenjam 2y agoLooks like all the bending the knee to Trump didn't work out so well for Zuck.
- mock-possum 2y agoit never does
- dylan604 2y agoThe bending of the knee wasn't followed by a briefcase full of cash, or a large enough donation to the campaign/library fund, or not enough meme coin purchase. Maybe he should have shown up to Mar-a-lago wearing a Trump watch carrying a Trump bible. In other words, Zuck didn't come across as truly loyal in his meetings with Trump.
- bloomingeek 2y agoWell put, perhaps this could be the beginning of a super rich person rebelling against the current administration? Goodness knows somebody needs to, or he will run them all over until it's time to completely burn the rest of us who don't have the means to defend ourselves in court. If recent news is to be believed from major networks simply reporting what trump says, NOTHING is beyond his contempt for anyone who doesn't bend the knee, which is un-american.
- zelphirkalt 2y agoHow I would hate to see Zuck of all people be displayed as some kind of key figure in resisting fascism. The enabler of ethnic purges, proven criminal, put up on whatever kind of pedestal. And then the silly people forever reminding me of it by saying something along the lines: "But look, he did something with his money! He got us freedom back!" or some other BS. Maybe I should already practice restraint, just in case.
- dylan604 2y agoIsn’t that pretty much the playbook though? The younger evil villain slays the older evil villain to take its place? Just because one slays the evil ruler doesn’t mean they are just themselves.
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- giancarlostoro 2y agoAssuming Mark Zuckerberg coughs up 30 billion somehow, who gets that money? Like really, and where does it go to? Serious question.
- SecretDreams 2y agoTrump's kids?
- brandall10 2y ago"Zuckerberg offered much less and hoped Trump would back him up." I wouldn't be surprised if a certain amount was offered through backchannels to his family, and someway, somehow, Trump didn't have the influence over this case like was expected.
- potato3732842 2y agoIf you're looking to open a factory or build an apartment (or any other single digit million dollar thing that some government official can discretionarily double the cost of by being obstinate and forcing you to drag them through court) building one of the first things you do is internet stalk the key government officials figure out who their friends are and kick off a bunch of $200-2000 donations to whatever stuff the people around them are involved in (middle school drama club, local animal shelter, etc, etc). With hundreds of millions at stake I would be very surprised if they weren't doing this and more.
- transcriptase 2y agoThe treasury. It basically means 30 billion fewer dollars will need to be conjured for outgoing payments.
- dylan604 2y agoOh look, here's how we can pay for that tax cut for the über wealthy! Thanks Zuck!!
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- Apocryphon 2y agoSo much for the vaccine skepticism as free speech virtue signaling
- OsrsNeedsf2P 2y agoPeople saying Zuck's ass kissing didn't work are missing the point. If it even has a 1 in 10 chance of working, it's worth it
- dylan604 2y agoIf you're going to be an ass kisser, you can't do it half way. You gotta make the ass being kissed like it's the only ass you'll ever kiss again. Phony ass kissing is so obvious that the ass being kissed is insulted even more. At that point, you'd have been better off doing nothing
- lazide 2y agoGod, I miss Weyoun. The things he could teach these amateurs.
- kashunstva 2y ago> it's worth it Only after factoring out the effects of your integrity and self-respect. But I suppose that in Meta’s case we can assume that sort of pre-discounting of character was already done.
- xnx 2y ago> Only after factoring out the effects of your integrity and self-respect. I'd definitely sell these for my first billion, but probably not my Nth.
- theideaofcoffee 2y agoGet fucked, Zuck. I hope the knee-bending was worth it! I also hope that any case (as one could be pretty sure there will be litigation over it) in the future finds in favor of the commission. The fine can't be big enough for the shit it's put the world through.
- valeg 2y agoTrump is offended by measly sums which Zuck has put in his pocket. Anti-trust crusade is a perfect way to shake more from him. Give the bully an inch, he will take a mile.
- rvz 2y agoMicrosoft will be targeted last, [0] with good reason. (They know how to avoid anti-trust scrutiny the best). This is why Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta have all been targeted first, before building a huge case for Microsoft. Again, it won't be easy as the FTC and the DOJ have failed to break Microsoft up many times. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41475806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41475806
- rtkwe 2y agoWhat would be the actual case against them these days? They've lost their dominant position in nearly everything except desktop OS, if they're being anticompetitive they're doing a pretty bad job of it.
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- ece 2y agoWhatsapp and Instagram only compete with others if you can convince others to install another app and switch to it. Switching phones is easier, so is whatever else you personally use by far. I'm glad beeper exists, but it shouldn't have taken this long for it to exist. Only one way to reduce harmful network effects, give users more choice.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago"FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson found the offer not credible, and wasn't ready to settle for anything less than $18 billion and a consent decree." "Former FTC Chair Lina Khan told the Journal that the company's $450 million settlement offer was "delusional.""