Facebook Faces New Antitrust Lawsuit

“It’s hard to show monopolization,” he said. “The tumult across the political landscape isn’t necessarily going to be reflected in how the courts rule.”

Phhhoto was founded in 2012 and the app was launched in 2014. People used it to edit photos and link images together into looping videos. It became buzzy and was promoted by celebrities such as Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry.

After Mr. Zuckerberg downloaded the app in 2014, Kevin Systrom, a founder of Instagram, and senior managers at Facebook and Instagram also did so, according to the suit.

In February 2015, Bryan Hurren, then Facebook’s strategic partnerships manager, reached out to Phhhoto’s founders to discuss a “platform integration opportunity,” according to the suit. Mr. Hurren offered to integrate Phhhoto into Facebook’s News Feed, the suit says, which was prime real estate on the world’s largest social platform.

But “Facebook strung Phhhoto along for months without making meaningful progress on the supposed integration,” the suit says. Mr. Hurren told Phhhoto that Facebook was “hung up on some legal conversations,” the suit says.

On March 31, 2015, Instagram changed its settings so that Phhhoto users couldn’t find their Instagram friends. When Phhhoto reached out to Facebook about the issue, Mr. Hurren told them “that Instagram was apparently upset that Phhhoto was growing in users through its relationship with Instagram,” according to the suit.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/technology/facebook-antitrust-lawsuit-phhhoto.html