The US antitrust regulator in court demanded that Facebook abandon Instagram and WhatsApp

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. This was reported on the FTC website.

According to the regulator, Facebook "illegally maintains a personal monopoly on social media" by adhering to a "systematic strategy" for many years, including the acquisition of "promising competitors".

The FTC in the lawsuit asks the court, among other things, to oblige Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, and in the future to seek approval for transactions similar to the purchase of these services.

The FTC's lawsuit was joined by prosecutors from 46 states and prosecutors from the District of Columbia and Guam.

• Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion. Instagram was bought by Instagram in 2012 for a billion dollars.
• In May 2019, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, in a column for the New York Times, proposed splitting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp into independent companies and urged the US government to limit the influence of the social network.