Facebook may face US's antitrust charges

Facebook may face antitrust charges from the US as early in November, 2020. As per reports , the Federal Trade Commission confidentially met on Thursday to examine the situation. The FTC is responsible for consumer protection in the States. On the other hand, the state attorneys general under the leadership of New York’s Letitia James have been scrutinizing Facebook for potential threats to competition.

The time frame could vary, adding that the state attorneys general are in the late stages of preparing their complaint. Neither Facebook, or the FTC, or the office of the New York Attorney General have addressed the move yet.

Although Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg in August said that he was interviewed at an FTC investigative hearing as part of the government’s antitrust probe into the social media company.

Facebook faced similar probes by the Justice Department and by state attorneys general, and has said previously that the investigations were looking at prior acquisitions and business practices involving "social networking or social media services, digital advertising, and/or mobile or online applications."

Prior to this, in July 2019, Facebook also agreed to pay a record-breaking $5 billion fine to resolve a separate FTC probe into the company’s privacy practices.