Public prosecutors in the United States are preparing a lawsuit against Facebook for its alleged monopoly position.
Justice is targeting, among other things, the large acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp by the social media company. The Washington Post reports that based on insiders.
According to the prosecutors, Facebook created such a wide range of social media services with the acquisitions that consumers can hardly ignore the concern, writes The Washington Post. Prosecutors also reportedly looked critically at changes Facebook made to Instagram and WhatsApp after the incorporation.
Especially the handling of the latter messaging service would come under fire. In order to get permission for the takeover of the chat service, Facebook promised in 2014 to maintain WhatsApp’s independent position and privacy protection.
Still, Mark Zuckerberg’s company is looking for ways to integrate WhatsApp user data into other services, which is a source of concern given some major privacy scandals in the past.
According to sources from The Washington Post, prosecutors have also investigated whether Facebook uses the vast amount of personal data it holds to keep competitors at bay. This would be possible, for example, by not giving other developers of apps access to that data.
