Submitted 11 months ago by Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://prospect.org/power/2025-04-16-government-already-won-meta-case-tiktok-ftc-zuckerberg/
Mark Zuckerberg fairly obviously bought Instagram and WhatsApp to neutralize a perceived competitor. He isn’t doing that with TikTok, and the FTC’s monopolization trial is why.
They haven’t “won” until Meta has to pay damages. And even then, that win is hollow because not only will Meta try this again if the penalty isn’t high enough, but they’ll use the advantages of our weak leadership to further avoid any serious repercussions.
Anything short of forcing them to sell IG and WApp is a slap on the wrist.
i think tik tok might be in a position where they must sell in order to continue serving content to American users:
after the TikTok CEO, Shou Chew, threw a big party for right wing influencers who helped Trump during his bribe acceptance party inauguration, Trump mysteriously halted the order (signed into law) to ban tik tok.
from the article:
Top TikTok executives reportedly rubbed shoulders with American tech leaders and handed out business cards at an elite pre-inauguration donor event on Sunday featuring members of the Trump administration, as the app’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain.
Tiktok executives including CEO Shou Chew and vice president Michael Beckerman were reportedly on hand at the event, which President Donald and First Lady Melania Trump hosted at the National Building Museum in Washington. They joined a reported guestlist including Vice President JD Vance, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and conservative megadonor Miriam Adelson.
geeze, it’s almost like the tech oligarchs told Trump to pause the ban until they could negotiate a way to profit more from acquisition of TikTok (or a newly created US based subsidiary) than by outright banning users access to it, cold turkey.
That’s true. But that doesn’t mean they don’t get to choose a better option than Facebook or Google or Amazon. Amazon at the very least isn’t a main competitor of theirs because Amazon doesn’t have a short form video product that’s mainstream. And they can afford to buy Tik Tok. So there’s that at least.
reddig33@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The FTC is the organization that approved these mergers in the first place.