• Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

maltawinds.comLogo

The Economy's Voice

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Local News
  • International News
  • Opinion
  • Demia on Sundays
  • Demeter
  • Business
  • Satire on Sunday
  • UK hospitals are using blockchain to track the temperature of coronavirus vaccines
  • ECB's latest stimulus expected to have little impact on euro zone economy - Reuters poll

Facebook’s Zuckerberg criticised during antitrust hearing with company emails showing competition against Instagram and WhatsApp

Posted by Fabrizio Tabone on 30th July 2020 in International News

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg struggled in a congressional hearing over the alleged abuse of market power on Wednesday July 29, with lawmakers showing internal emails about the company’s acquisitions that proved to be damaging.

The House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel provided an extensive amount of Facebook company emails, with screenshots of these emails showing correspondence from Zuckerberg and other executives.

Through these emails, lawmakers gathered that Zuckerberg acknowledged photo-sharing application Instagram as well as messaging application WhatsApp as competitors to Facebook prior to the company acquiring them.

In 2012, just two months before acquiring Instagram, Zuckerberg wrote that Whatsapp and Instagram pose threats as “if they grow to a large scale they could be very disruptive to us”.

In another email which was written on the same day that Facebook announced the purchase of Instagram, Zuckerberg claimed that “Instagram was our threat”, later on admitting that “one thing about startups though is you can often acquire them”.

Joe Neguse, a representative for Colorado’s second congressional district, claimed that an email in 2014 showed Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer David Wehner referred to the acquisition of Instagram as a “land grab”.

Neguse claimed that such acquisitions are what lead to a “monopoly”, something that is not tolerated.

The committee did not present as many exchanges to the other executives at the hearing, with the executives present including Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, Alphabet Inc-owned Google’s Sundar Pichai, as well as Apple Inc’s Tim Cook.

When asked by Democratic Representative Pramil Jayapal over the copying of Snapchat by Facebook for anti-competitive reasons, Zuckerberg claimed that he did not know how many competitors Facebook end up copying.

Jayapal also asked Zuckerberg whether Facebook had ever threatened to clone a competitor’s feature whilst in talks to buy them, reminding him that he is “under other and there are quotes from Facebook’s own documents” on the matter.

The documents presented also showed how the company viewed the United States in 2012, claiming that Facebook is “95% of all social media in the U.S.”, with this graphic being titled “The industry consolidates as it matures.”

These allegations come after a string of legal actions taken against Mark Zuckerberg, both for disrupting competitiveness, as well as for privacy concerns within their applications and websites.

Posted in International News | Tagged competition, Congress, Facebook, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, social media, WhatsApp

About the Author

Fabrizio Tabone

Fabrizio Tabone

I am a 19-year-old University of Malta student that is currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and English, with the aim of becoming a full-time journalist in the future.

Related Posts

Twitter permanently suspends Trump’s account, cites ‘incitement of violence’ risk→

President Trump pressured Pence to engineer a coup, then put the Vice President in danger, source says→

Congress rejects first Republican objection to Biden victory→

Italy court orders Facebook to pay $5 million in damages for copying app→

advertisement
  • Posts
  • Comments
  • Tag Cloud
  • UK hospitals are using blockchain to track the temperature of coronavirus vaccines

    19th January 2021 / Vento
  • ECB’s latest stimulus expected to have little impact on euro zone economy – Reuters poll

    19th January 2021 / Vento
  • European airlines face a grim summer without a faster vaccine rollout

    19th January 2021 / Vento
  • GDPR fines have increased by almost half as European authorities flex their regulatory muscles

    19th January 2021 / Vento
  • Malta reiterates its continued support for EU-wide coordination on COVID19 matters

    19th January 2021 / Vento
  • Avatar
    Joseph Gatt on The government is committed to supporting Malta’s…Both the Business Start (B…
  • Avatar
    Hindi Lyrics on Nurse death toll from COVID-19 hits the…I have been looking for…
  • Avatar
    Mehfooz Roy on US Presidential Elections: Biden leads polls in…You really think sleepy Joe…
  • Avatar
    Peter Buckley on "It is wrong. It is oppressive of…What she says is patently…
  • Avatar
    Carlos on Hungary and Poland to form rule-of-law institute…The article deals with something…
aviation banking Bitcoin blockchain Boris Johnson BOV brexit business China climate change COVID-19 cryptocurrency Donald Trump ECB economy Education environment EU euro area Europe European Commission European Parliament European Union Eurostat eurozone finance France Germany Government Infrastructure Malta investment Italy lockdown Malta maritime pandemic politics restrictions technology travel UK United States US vaccine WHO

News Calendar

July 2020
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Jun   Aug »
Footer logo
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
 




 
 
 

Copyright © 2016 MaltaWinds.com

Menu

  • About
  • Home