Facebook's Antitrust battle begins

1 big thing

Axios

News

4.0 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2020

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Wednesday, both the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of attorneys general from 48 States and territories filed lawsuits against Facebook. The two parallel sets of lawsuits accused the company of violating anti-trust laws by creating a monopoly on social media, using the company's vast amount of money and data to stifle competition. Plus, the investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes. And, big tech's racism problem. Guests: Axios' Scott Rosenberg, Mike Allen and Ina Fried. Credits: "Axios Today" is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Carol Wu, Cara Shillenn, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Dan Bobkoff, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Alex Sugiura and Naomi Shavin. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at podcasts@axios.com. Go deeper: FTC and states sue Facebook for illegally stifling competition Hunter Biden says he’s under federal tax investigation Scoop: Google CEO pledges to investigate exit of top AI ethicist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Thursday, December 10th. I'm Naila Boodoo.
0:08.0	Here's how we're making you smarter today. Big Tech's Big Diversity Problem. Plus, a federal investigation into
0:15.1	Hunter Biden's taxes. But first a massive government suit against
0:20.2	Facebook is today's one big thing.
0:25.0	No company.
0:28.0	No company should have this much unchecked power
0:32.0	over our personal information and our social
0:35.0	interactions. That was New York Attorney General Latisha James on
0:39.1	Wednesday as the Federal Trade Commission and Attorneys General of 48 States and Territories
0:44.4	announced lawsuits against Facebook.
0:46.4	The two parallel sets of lawsuits accused the company of violating antitrust laws
0:51.4	using the company's vast amount of money and data to stifle competition.
0:55.6	Facebook says that's not true and buying out social media sites like Instagram and
1:00.3	WhatsApp have actually benefited those companies and consumers.
1:05.2	We knew these lawsuits would happen at some point.
1:07.2	We just didn't know how big they would be.
1:09.2	Scott Rosenberg is Ex- Use is managing editor of Technology based in Berkeley.
1:13.1	Scott, first, can we just talk about Facebook's rise to power?
1:16.6	Yeah, I mean, it went from being this college campus enthusiasm
1:21.7	to being the world's most powerful social network.
1:25.0	It's a company that's worth almost a trillion dollars.
1:27.9	It has more than 2 billion users around the globe and it has a huge chunk of the advertising market as well as
	...

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