New York state attorney general said bipartisan coalition investigating if Facebook stifled competition and put users at risk

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Dozens of US states are set to launch antitrust and privacy investigations into Facebook and Google as scrutiny of the big tech firms increases in the US.

The investigation into Alphabet’s Google unit will examine the search giant’s effect on the digital advertising market and its impact on consumers. In a separate but overlapping investigation the states’ leading law enforcers will investigate Facebook’s privacy record and its advertising model.

Facebook confirms 419m phone numbers exposed in latest privacy lapse Read more

The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was confirmed on Friday morning by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. “Even the largest social media platform in the world must follow the law and respect consumers,” said James in a statement.

She said the bipartisan coalition of attorneys general was investigating whether Facebook has stifled competition and put users at risk.

The inquiry includes the attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia. James said the investigation “focuses on Facebook’s dominance in the industry and the potential anticompetitive conduct stemming from that dominance”.

“We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook’s actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices or increased the price of advertising,” James said.

The investigations come as the tech giants have come under increasing scrutiny in the US. Facebook recently paid $5bn to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allegations that it repeatedly deceived users about their ability to keep their personal information private.

That fine came after a year-long investigation into the Cambridge Analytica data breach, first reported by the Observer.

The fine, however, was dismissed by many politicians as insignificant for a company that had revenues of $55bn in 2018. “Rather than accepting this settlement, I believe we should have initiated litigation against Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg,” said Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Democratic FTC commissioner.

European regulators have until recently been far more aggressive in their policing of the tech giants than their US counterparts. Facebook is already the subject of an antitrust investigation in Europe, where regulators are also weighing sanctions on the company for breaking the region’s strict privacy laws.

In Britain a parliamentary report labelled Facebook and its executives as “digital gangsters” earlier this year after an investigation found the company deliberately broke privacy and competition law.

But the tech companies’ cozier relationship with Washington is fraying as cross-party support for more regulation and scrutiny has mounted. Federal privacy laws are being considered in the US and the companies have attracted the ire of Donald Trump who has called them “dishonest” and “crooked” and said that “something is going to be done”.

More details soon …