Thread by @kentbye

FTC + 48 states are suing Facebook:
"The FTC alleges that Facebook engaged in a systematic strategy to eliminate threats to its monopoly, including the 2012 & 2014 acquisitions of Instagram & WhatsApp"

Some of these behaviors may be still happening in VR.
cnbc.com/2020/12/09/ftc…

The FTC lawsuit focuses on Whatsapp & Instagram, but Bloomberg reported on December 3rd that the Justice department has also been talking to a number of VR developers, who are also alleging similar anti-competitive behaviors within the VR industry.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

3/ On August 18th, Oculus announced that Facebook social media accounts would be required to use their VR hardware, and there was a backlash that catalyzed VR developers like @BigscreenVR's @DShankar to speak up about potential anti-competitive behaviors:

https://twitter.com/DShankar/status/1295825811748999173

4/ On August 21st, @DShankar came on the Voices of VR podcast to talk about how Facebook's 30% cut of any transactions on their VR platform make it impossible for @BigscreenVR to sell movies, while Facebook's future media consumption apps won't pay that.

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1296956299993706496

4/ On June 11, 2019, Guy Godin announced on Reddit & on Twitter "Oculus doesn’t want the SteamVR streaming feature in their store” & he had been asked by Oculus to remove this wireless streaming feature that he had recently added to his @VRDesktop app.
reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/…

6/ On Sep 21, 2020, @VRDesktop's Guy Godin came on the Voices of VR podcast to talk about how his wireless streaming functionality was prevented from being released in the Oculus store, but also FB cloned features & even named it the same "Virtual Desktop"

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1308177870276063232

7/ On Sep 25, 2020 @Verge's @thedextriarchy wrote an article titled "Facebook is turning VR into a platform — but some indie developers fear its power: ‘We’re basically guinea pigs.’"
She quoted Shankar, Godin & other VR devs + cited my chat w/ @VRDesktop:

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1309566412793368576

8/ On Oct 4th, @YUR_Fit co-founder @CixLiv claimed that Facebook "will block you from the store without reason, break your application, try to POACH YOUR CTO, then copy your app and carrot you the entire time pretending they are going to work with you.”

https://twitter.com/CixLiv/status/1312903485034164224

9/ On Oct 10, 2020 I recorded an oral history interview with @CixLiv to capture his story of @YUR_Fit being blocked & cloned by Facebook. It was clear that he was risking his job speaking with me & so I waited for him to give me the green light to publish:

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1334643643802513408

10/ On Dec 3, Bloomberg published their article, & @CixLiv gave me the green light to publish our oral history interview.
Liv resigned sometime after I spoke to him on Oct 10.
He posted to Facebook that he chose to step down in order to share the truth.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

11/ On Oct 6, US House Judiciary Committee released a 449-pg report on potential anti-trust violations from Facebook, Apple, Google, & Amazon with a section titled: "Facebook's Strategy to Acquire, Copy, or Kill Competitors" @CixLiv continued to speak out:

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1313592921136885761

12/ Buzz in the press was that the FTC was preparing to take action against one or more of these major tech corps.
Bloomberg likely started talking to a bunch of VR devs about FB anti-trust issues sometime after Oct 6 report, but likely shelved it in Nov because of the election.

13/ On Dec 3, Bloomberg reports "Liv said he was forced out of his company after speaking out against Facebook on Twitter about a month ago."

@TheVRFund's @tipatat "denied telling Liv that he had to leave the company if he kept criticizing Facebook."

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

14/ But @CixLiv also said on Facebook he chose to step down from @YUR_fit in order to share his story.

So was he forced out or did he resign?

Seems likely the investors & co-founder didn't appreciate how he was speaking out, which led to him stepping down in order to speak out.

15/ I'm not sure what was said between @CixLiv & the rest of his @YUR_Fit team, but I can say that when I talked to Liv on October 10th, I got the impression he was still with the company. However, by the time I aired it on Dec 3rd, he wasn't & was speaking on his own behalf.

16/ @CixLiv likely resigned sometime after Oct 10.

On Oct 22, he started tweeting PSAs against Facebook.

https://twitter.com/CixLiv/status/1319364000501526528

On Oct 25, he posted an infographic showing a timeline of how Facebook blocked, broke, & copied YUR Fit with Oculus Move:

https://twitter.com/CixLiv/status/1320475459830697984

17/ What do these 3 VR devs have in common?
They all compete with Facebook's 1st party app roadmap.
Bloomberg: "At the core of the complaints is the way Facebook runs the platform & competes against software developers who build apps & depend on the platform for their business."

18/ On Feb 13, 2019 @blakejharrisNYC gave @TechCrunch a Jun 22, 2015 email from Mark Zukerberg on FB's VR/AR strategy he acquired while researching his HISTORY OF THE FUTURE book on FB acquiring Oculus.
Much is outdated, but some of it is still relevant.
techcrunch.com/2019/02/13/fac…

19/ CAVEAT @TechCrunch didn't independently verify content of Zuckerberg's AR/VR strategy email.
BUT it's 5+ yrs later & we can see how it's playing out.

Zuckerberg says VR/AR will be next computing platform & they need to have BOTH platform AND key apps.
scribd.com/document/39959…

20/ In this alleged VR/AR strategy email from Zuckerberg, he divides the VR/AR ecosystem into 3 major parts (in order of importance):
1.) Apps / Experiences
2.) Platform Services
3.) Hardware / Systems

Note Zuckerberg values VR/AR apps/experiences over HW
scribd.com/document/39959…

21/ What were key app/experiences in 2015 did Zuckerberg expect?
Social communication, media consumption, & immersive video.

"Gaming is critical but is more hits driven & ephemeral, so owning the key games seems less important than simply making sure they exist on our platform."

22/ The 3 VR developers who have had issues with FB are creating non-gaming apps that happen to compete with Facebook's 1st party app roadmap:
@BigscreenVR (media consumption)
@VRDesktop (wireless streaming & Virtual Desktop clone)
@YUR_Fit (fitness tracking & Oculus Move Clone)

23/ The alleged email describes Zuckerberg's 2nd most important pillar, which is the the platform services of "identity, content & avatar marketplace, app distribution store, ads, payments"
@VRDesktop allows streaming of VR content outside of FB's control.
scribd.com/document/39959…

24/ 3rd is hardware/systems. Zuckerberg allegedly concludes that to achieve mass ubiquity, they can't focus on HW in the absence of killer apps.
They need:
1) Completely ubiquitous apps
2) Very strong coverage in platform services
3) Strong enough hardware
scribd.com/document/39959…

25/ There's a fundamental conflict of interest with Facebook/Oculus wanting to both create a VR platform & services for indie developers to innovate on (3rd & 2nd priority) while at the same time their top priority is to own & control the biggest VR killer apps on their platform.

26/ Great point by @timoni.
Breaking off Instagram & WhatsApp from Facebook has the potential to undermine FB's hardware initiatives & VR in general.
My take is Facebook has both undeniably accelerated the XR industry, but also done stuff to hold it back:

https://twitter.com/timoni/status/1336844707209465857

27/ Here's a video & full press release for the "@FTC Suing Facebook for Illegal Monopolization "
ftc.gov/news-events/pr…

Here's the link to the public lawsuit of
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
v.
FACEBOOK, INC.
This has some redactions from the one under seal:
ftc.gov/system/files/d…

28/ I have correction to the top tweet.
There are 48 states AND territories who are suing Facebook.
That's attorney generals from 46 states, Guam, & the District of Columbia.

Which 4 states didn't join in?
Alabama
Georgia
South Carolina
South Dakota

More
ag.ny.gov/press-release/…

29/ There's actually two different lawsuits filed today against Facebook by FTC and the 48 AGs.

State AG Press Release
ag.ny.gov/press-release/…

State AG Lawsuit (PDF)
ag.ny.gov/sites/default/…

FTC Press Release
ftc.gov/news-events/pr…

FTC Lawsuit (PDF)
ftc.gov/system/files/d…

30/ 16-min video from @NewYorkStateAG announcing the Multistate Attorney General lawsuit against Facebook.


She says the lawsuit tells the story of how FB suppresses innovation, cuts privacy protections, & monetizes private data.

https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/1336755231946846208

31/ Facebook's @fbnewsroom released a response of "Lawsuits Filed by the FTC & the State Attorneys General Are Revisionist History"
about.fb.com/news/2020/12/l…

My take: both investigations got lots of juicy emails & internal data to tell part of the story.

https://twitter.com/fbnewsroom/status/1336764387818950656

32/ NYT's @MikeIsaac shared an internal post from Zuckerberg: "Overall, we disagree with the government's allegations and we plan to fight this in court"
Also "you shouldn't be communicating about these cases or related issues except with our legal team."

https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/1336825630034337792

33/ I've been reading through lots legal analysis threads & tech policy commentary about the FTC & State AG anti-trust lawsuits against Facebook.

This thread from @sarahmillerdc gives some great historical context & evolution of #BreakUpFacebook movement:

https://twitter.com/sarahmillerdc/status/1336782762909593603

34/ Solid thread with legal analysis of the the two FB lawsuits by antitrust & antimonopoly scholar @linamkhan, who points out that the unique privacy bait & switch arguments + broken promise to not combine WhatsApp data that's not made in the FTC lawsuit:

https://twitter.com/linamkhan/status/1336828056695136259

35/ @doctorow did a great thread back on Nov 20 contextualizing the pioneering antitrust legal scholarship by Columbia Law's @linamkhan & Yale's @DinaSrinivasan, who dug into the tech details of the anti-competitive behaviors of Amazon, Google, & Facebook:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1329891718217383937

36/ This influential anti-trust legal paper by @DinaSrinivasan published in Feb 2019 has been cited quite a bit: "The Antitrust Case Against Facebook: A Monopolist's Journey Towards Pervasive Surveillance in Spite of Consumers' Preference for Privacy"
lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1128876…

37/ @File411 is an anonymous lawyer who digs through tons of public documents & lawsuits providing a combo of snarky + wonky legal commentary.
Links back to some previous threads on Facebook here for some more historical context.

https://twitter.com/File411/status/1336758344518946817

38/ @sarahmillerdc says @RepCicilline led a "historic investigation into Facebook and other platforms’ monopoly power" as a House of Representatives rep from Rhode Island & chairman of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial & Administrative Law:

https://twitter.com/davidcicilline/status/1336829015722774530

39/ This @doctorow thread digs into some of the technical & legal aspects of Facebook + anti-trust.
He deconstructs the arguments on both sides, including some leaked memos from Facebook in October laying out their defense strategy:
pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/flo…

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1336832819675316227

40/ @matthewstoller says "what Facebook did was illegal... monopolization is criminal behavior. It’s a form of theft, of economic violence. And Facebook makes a lot of money from engaging in crimes of various forms, monopolization being only one of them."

https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1336888313941291008