The Other Big Story: AG Fox Signed on to Facebook Lawsuit

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Earlier this week, we were the first in Montana to report the big news that Montana was signing on to the Texas lawsuit challenging the presidential election results in four key battleground states.

There was another big development out of the Montana Attorney General's office earlier this week as well. Attorney General Tim Fox (R-MT) announced that Montana would be joining a multi-state lawsuit going after Facebook.

“Over the last decade, Facebook illegally acquired competitors in a predatory manner and cut services to smaller threats,” said Montana Chief Deputy Attorney General Jon Bennion. “Facebook deprived users from the benefits of competition and reduced privacy protections and services along the way, all in an effort to boost its bottom line through increased advertising revenue,” Bennion added.

 

Montana joins nearly all 50 states in going after Facebook for monopolistic practices, as the AP reports:

The U.S. government and 48 states and districts sued Facebook Wednesday, accusing it of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors and seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of the social network’s Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services.

The Federal Trade Commission is also jumping into the fight, and is attempting for force Facebook to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp, according to CNBC:

The lawsuits focus primarily on Facebook’s history of acquiring or attempting to acquire smaller companies, alleging it used its market power to quash potential competitors before they could turn into true rivals. In addition to the WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions, the FTC’s lawsuit points to Facebook’s previous attempts to buy other social networking companies like Twitter and Snap.

I don't know about you, but business practices aside, I am getting sick and tired of Facebook interfering in our elections, and pushing their political agenda by manipulating the content we provide. I don't need some techie kid in California telling me which doctor is right, and which doctor is wrong.