FTC’s Facebook Investigation Will Run Until at Least 2021

It’s looking like the FTC investigation of Facebook is going to take a little more time to complete. New York Times reports that it’s become ‘virtually impossible’ to finish the Facebook investigation before 2021. Although progress is being made, a lot of what’s going on so far is still in the very early stages of the process. More than likely, there will be many more requests for paperwork, and testimony from company leaders could also take a while.

The Washington Post mentioned that FTC officials were getting ready to have discussions with Facebook operations leader Sheryl Sandberg and it’s top leader, Mark Zuckerberg.

Neither the FTC or Facebook have inclined to comment on the progress reports just yet. Facebook, however, did say that it was looking forward to sharing its ‘views on the competitive landscape’ when FB head Mark Zuckerberg gives his statement to Congress on July 27th.

A lot of the details surrounding the case are as of yet unreleased, but we are pretty sure that they are focusing on whether or not the social media giant broke any antitrust laws through their company acquisitions. Facebook owns social media titans WhatsApp and Instagram, and it has been buying up companies such as Giphy. Facebook’s competition has struggled to compete.

Not completing the investigation until 2021 may greatly alter the direction of the inquiry. The US Government may (hopefully) elect a new president in November. If that happens, it could easily lead to a replacement for the current FTC chairman, Joseph Simons. With someone else at the helm, the antitrust case could take a whole new direction. The investigation could change focus and expectations entirely. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that this potential change means that Facebook is out of hot water.

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