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It’s time for US authorities to move fast and break things.
A long-expected showdown between government regulators and mighty Facebook could become a defining moment for Silicon Valley and the way we use social media.
Meer as 40 states and the Federal Trade Commission have filed parallel lawsuits that accuse Mark Zuckerberg’s $ 800 billion social media giant of acting as an illegal monopoly and allege it is using its massive wealth to buy up rivals in order to crush competition. Facebook denies the charges, and says Washington is moving the goalposts after previously clearing its acquisitions.
The government offensive against Facebook comes in the twilight of the Trump administration, but the bipartisan nature of the complaints — led by New York’s Democratic attorney general, Letitia James — suggests that the Biden administration won’t stand in its way. If successful, the lawsuits could have grave consequences for Facebook: The FTC hopes to force it to sell off photo-sharing app Instagram and messaging app WhatsApp.
“Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anti-competitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive,” said Ian Conner, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
The truth is that Facebook doesn’t have much goodwill in Washington. It is so huge and influential that there are multiple reasons for lawmakers to harbor concerns about its operations. Many believe it has not done enough to stop the spread of falsehoods, conspiracy theories and lies that pollute US elections. Others believe its dominance of online advertising poses an unfair threat to traditional media companies. And Zuckerberg’s combative appearances before congressional committees hardly endeared him to power brokers on Capitol Hill.
Facebook is not the only Silicon Valley behemoth in Washington’s sights. The Justice Department and 11 states filed suit against Google in October, alleging it stifled competition to ensure its own dominance of online search and advertising. Google categorically rejects the charges.
Both cases are already drawing comparisons to the US government’s case against Microsoft, which included years of trials and appeals and ended in a settlement.
‘I want to go four years back’
Trump’s quixotic challenges to his election loss keep going sideways, but he’s still not ready to move on, CNN’s Kevin Liptak verslae. “They’re saying 2024. I said I’m not interested right now. Let’s do this one first,” the President told guests at one of his holiday parties, venting frustration that his associates seem ready to move on while he would very much like to stay put. “I don’t want to go four years forward,” he complained, his partygoers cheering him on as he riffed beneath the twinkle lights, according to a video posted on social media by one of the guests. “I want to go four years back.”
Where things are going
Vir Morocco to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel — a fourth such pact masterminded by the Trump administration — the President paid a price. As an inducement to the agreement, the United States will recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara, a disputed territory between southern Morocco and Mauritania.
Most countries do not recognize Morocco’s claim. The Sahrawi people who live in the area have insisted on its independence for decades, and the United Nations recognizes it as a “non-self-governing territory.” But such nuanced foreign-policy stances often get trampled in the Trump team’s bulldozing efforts to fulfill its goals — in this case, building an international legacy for the outgoing President.
As CNN’s Vivian Salama writes for Meanwhile, the President’s son-in-law and political fixer, Jared Kushner, brushed off the notion that the US was leaving the vulnerable Sahrawi high and dry for a political win. “It’s something that we think advances the region and helps bring more clarity to where things are going,” Kushner told reporters.
The Moroccan government’s decades-long lobbying effort in Washington has been rewarded. But some observers worry it could dangerously intensify a long-simmering showdown between the Polisario Front liberation movement and Moroccan forces, just weeks after a 29-year ceasefire between the two sides began to crumble.
