Looks like the Federal Trade Commission's opposition to Facebook's attempt to dismiss their case to break the company into bits for anticompetitive behavior was just filed. Night reading...
this summary of amended complaint's metrics to establish market power is a reminder how absurdly Facebook's lobby tried to argue FTC hadn't backed up their monopoly claim. Having been around a few digital media businesses for 25+yrs, these are valid metrics to move forward. /2
oh, and there's that not-so-minor point, too. the competition used the same metrics. /3
Yes, Facebook argued Daily Active Users and Monthly Active Users didn't measure intensity and then ignored the 3rd metric (Time Spent) which very much measures intensity because according to FB not 100% of the app usage was personal social networking services. Seriously. /4
those who have been around long enough to know the history of comscore (or the company formerly known as MediaMetrix) may enjoy this point to the courts. Amen. Just give us the data, please. /5
Damnit, Mark. As our autocratic CEO, you can't entirely undermine our attempt to create a legal argument to protect you. /6
Raise your hand if you've been unsatisfied with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg's products.✋🏽/7
There they go again - facebook employees serving up the evidence to entirely undermine our legal arguments. This is why Google reportedly sent out a list of rules of what not to say in writing. /7
I've yet to find anyone to argue with me that the world, and I mean the entire world, would be different if Facebook and Instagram would have had to actually compete with each other over the last five years. /8
side note, little known but we learned through leak documents that this "enforcer" on the legal side was Monika Bickert - years before she pivoted into being Sheryl and Mark's trusted lieutenant on policing content and defending the company in front of lawmakers and on CNN. /9
I mean it doesn't read well - they weaponized their app platform and access to their data by restricting any other app from competing with them in exchange for access while at the same time not letting any app integrated with a competitive personal social network. /10
Zuckerberg and Sandberg have pulled the football on the industry so many times it isn't funny. The word of the company has zero value - I have too many examples to count. /11
I may know someone who signed a multimillion dollar deal for access to those APIs then was cut off from them going forward. I bet we all do. /12
If I were God for a day, I would just restrict Facebook from collecting any/all data from outside and across each of its respective apps (if they're not split up in this case) as the German Cartel Office has ordered. It's a reasonable remedy for their data abuses. /13
It seems like with the $5 billion pay-off and ***second*** consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission, the regulator may be now taking a hint about the moral bankruptcy of the company. /14
Ha, and there it is. Exactly to my last tweet, the Federal Trade Commission says the quiet part out loud, "no one trust you, Facebook. Your word is 'meaningless.'" /15
And glad FTC made this argument regarding the Chair. Imagine if having an adverse opinion of Facebook Inc actually disqualified people from prosecuting a case against Facebook, there would be no lawyer left standing. /16
Here is a link to my thread on the full amended FTC complaint. My abbreviated analysis of tonight's filing is this case is moving forward regardless of the spin Facebook fed through its lobby and influencer-flex when it was originally filed. /eof
"Meta disagreed."
First news report I've seen is from Reuters.
reuters.com/technology/us-…

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More from @jason_kint

18 Nov
Aah, Stanford researcher with a timely prompt. I'm going to have to do this, aren't I? The only right answer here is that we don't know. the entire case was a gigantic cover-up. There are very active lawsuits from major pension funds and powerful AGs to get answers. /1
Yes, many will reply to her that their methodology and targeting was "snake oil" but that’s still very much debated on use and impact but it's also irrelevant to the real issues at hand. /2
We do know... Cambridge Analytica contracted with a purpose-built intermediary that laundered and sold Facebook data to them. We also know the intermediary's CEO testified under oath he told facebook what he was doing in Sep '15, months prior to the first Dec '15 press report. /3
Read 18 tweets
18 Nov
Aah, Google->Stanford academic. I'm going to have to do this, aren't I? The only right answer here is that we don't know. The entire case was a gigantic cover-up, dust hasn't settled. There are VERY ACTIVE lawsuits from major pension funds and powerful AGs to get answers. /1
Yes, many will reply to her with FB's PR spin that their methodology and targeting was "snake oil" but that’s still very much debated/confused on the actual data use and relative goals and impact but it's also irrelevant to the real issues at hand. Here is what we DO know. /2
We do know... Cambridge Analytica contracted with a purpose-built intermediary that laundered and sold Facebook data to them. We also know the intermediary's CEO testified under oath he told facebook what he was doing in Sep '15, months prior to the first Dec '15 press report. /3
Read 19 tweets
18 Nov
"They are very good at dancing with data." - Facebook whistleblower. We've discussed this regarding Zuckerberg's misleading testimony on hate speech. But this Markup report is super important to understand prevalence of news brands. Stay with me here. /1 themarkup.org/citizen-browse…
When Facebook finally, under public and government pressure, began releasing a quarterly content report (first in q2 after reportedly suppressing q1), it's used a metric simply showing the # of users who saw links to a website without analyzing frequency of those sites. /2
any researcher with access to source data would avoid this pretty terrible metric. Since The Markup has developed its own source data from users volunteering their aggregated data for research, they are able to use a much better metric - taking into account frequency. /3
Read 7 tweets
15 Nov
WTF. I deleted my Facebook account on Oct 3rd, 2021 after watching Facebook whistleblower on 60 Minutes. ***But Facebook just deceptively brought it back from the dead.***

Dear Facebook, I look forward to you trying to explain this one (cc @nickclegg). Evidence thread. 1/6
Yes, I noted 30 day period in which Facebook hinted my account would return if I logged in (accident or intentional). So I was super careful to not log in.
Today at 1:53pm, I received this email from Facebook claiming to notice I was "having trouble logging into my account." 2/6
This was disturbing. Since my account was clearly communicated to be deleted and Facebook assured me that it was (as long as I didn't log in for 30 days), Facebook shouldn't even have my email in order to notify me if someone tries to log into my Facebook account. We're over. 3/6
Read 7 tweets
15 Nov
surprise. bipartisan state attorneys general (17 in total) filed their third amended complaint against Google late Friday night. This is the lawsuit where my initial reaction in December was, "Google is screwed." It's only gotten worse as evidence has been unsealed. /1
We've done a full comparison between 2nd and 3rd complaints. A ton of clarity added for charges which are both deeply technical but deeply concerning. I don't see how Department of Justice delays filing their own lawsuit. And the Facebook collusion charges should be criminal. /2
The lawsuit even more clearly lays out the conduct and harms which impact advertisers, publishers, and consumers. If you want to understand how a company generates approaching $1 billion of advertising revenue per day by extracting welfare from everyone else - here you go. /3
Read 8 tweets
13 Nov
Facebook news - amended complaint filed to what I previously called "Mother of all lawsuits" - insider trading allegations tied to FB knowingly leaking data for $, paying $5B to cover it up, governance failure, etc. I'll add more context in 15 tweets and link to prior thread. /1
It includes maybe ten new paragraphs - many in insider trading and governance failure sections. Includes new heavily redacted details regarding Facebook's "board" setting up an alleged scapegoat "Special Committee" just in time to settle for $5 billion and protect Zuckerberg. /2
Reminder, the allegation is this was done to avoid Zuckerberg being deposed or having his communications subject to discovery. To end the SEC and FTC lawsuits. There is also new info on the settlement and how many orders of magnitude larger it was than prior settlements. /3
Read 15 tweets

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