Snap! FTC amended lawsuit to break up Facebook - green light from the court! Congrats to FTC.
Rather than spend time dunking on FB's friendlies who suggested it had failed, I hope you will ignore their next round of talking points since the last ones were so damn wrong. /1
First, they told you the FTC failed to even define a market - their go-to line. This was entirely false, the court said they had failed to provide metrics to back it up which they added in spades to the amended complaint which had the same core theory as the Court notes. /2
The really really obviously on Facebook's payroll and influence list said things like the FTC had already "approved" the Instagram and WhatsApp deals which were sort of the rookie-league arguments and false. But again, the Judge clarified why those points were irrelevant. /3
back to actual arguments of the case, the Court had already accepted the market definition and then now tips the hat to the use of three metrics as backup. Anyone who has actually run a digital biz knows why you must look at multiple metrics holistically. So does the Judge. /4
In terms of Facebook's argument that buying Instagram and WhatsApp wasn't anticompetitive and bad for consumers, the Court throws in the compelling point of how Facebook pulled back its own investment in its own product after the deal. Point taken. /5
And love seeing the Court agree with Facebook that consumer harm also matters and that can't be proven on price (since facebook is free) but then agreeing the allegations are solid. DISCOVERY ON THIS AREA IS GOING TO BE A GOLD MINE as we all know, Facebook is a cesspool. /6
I mean one more point here on consumers. The allegation is market power allowed FB to lower its service quality for consumers. Does anyone doubt this? Do we really believe Facebook wouldn't have better addressed its problems of the past few years if it had more competition? /7
So when Facebook attempts to argue FTC re-arranged chairs on Titanic or FB's paid lobby group (hi @adamkovac) points out meaningless language in the decision (yes, Count II remains in the complaint), please return to my first tweet as they also said it should be thrown out. /8
And my threaded comments on the original amended complaint.
also, I should have pointed out the Court also threw out Facebook's weak sauce argument against the Chair's ability to file the case (google and amazon have tried similar arguments in other matters).
As background, here was my thread on the amended FTC case filed in August.

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More from @jason_kint

12 Jan
Voila. Court order just posted requiring CEO Zuckerberg to FINALLY be deposed (Facebook paid $5B to FTC in 2019 to avoid this) along with Allison Hendrix who played point with Cambridge Analytica during the cover-up at issue in this lawsuit. Facebook will still fight this. 1/2
This is a problem for Facebook because there is emerging evidence in a parallel suit in NDCal that signals the timeline and cover-up could get super messy for FB leadership. Their out here is somehow fighting the deposition and shutting down discovery. 2/2
Anyway, DC AG office has been strong in this case, too, and they've begun to connect some key dots as they await decision to amend the complaint to name Mark Zuckerberg on it - again something the company resisted hard with FTC and SEC settlements. 3/2
Read 5 tweets
4 Jan
This entire Washington Post - ProPublica joint report is superb as it states as clearly as I’ve seen the critical role of Facebook. The same unbridled tech generating $100B/year from advertisers in order to amplify microtargeting also does the same for the Big Lie. /1 Image
I’ve noted recently how Facebook is rotating 2016 Andy Stone clones in their Kaplan/Washington PR department to defend the company from the indefensible. Pusateri is apparently on deck for this one - attempting to reframe the point into something impossible to prove. /2 Image
The statement from Facebook today compared to its attempt to defend Sandberg’s gaslighting in the immediate aftermath is pretty obvious. /3
Read 8 tweets
30 Dec 21
Attention Verizon Wireless customers: “Custom Experience” is a new setting allowing Verizon to mine your mobile activity to feed its surveillance ads business effectively ripping off publishers, too. Even if you turn off the on-by-default setting they’ll text you again. /1
None of this would be possible under the FCC privacy rules passed in 2016 that were then thrown out in first few months of new administration. Google and adtech also opposed them as they were worried about a “slippery slope” impacting their own surveillance ads businesses. /2
I wrote a number of op-eds about all of this back in 2014-2016. Same issue continues to exist when companies acting as “gatekeepers” leverage their market power to force or trick users into accepting their surveillance advertising business models which most users don’t want. /3
Read 8 tweets
24 Dec 21
and because one Facebook lawsuit as the world turns to xmas eve isn't enough, the AG of Washington DC has his lawsuit for FB's cover-up of Cambridge Analytica and just filed reply to FB fighting Mark Zuckerberg being personally named in the suit. /1
"he 'personally participated' in the company's tortious conduct" hints at the newly discovered evidence that caused the AG's office to personally add Mark Zuckerberg to the lawsuit. Facebook paid the FTC $5 billion supposedly to avoid Zuckerberg being added to its lawsuit. /2
this is first time I've seen these exact words in a court doc, "his [Mark Zuckerberg] role in covering up Cambridge Analytica when Facebook first discovered it in 2015." This all gets to timeline where Zuckerberg's testimony and Facebook's failure to answer Parliament. /3
Read 5 tweets
24 Dec 21
facebook's fraud lawsuit for inflating its claimed reach for advertisers just posted 95 files (3,646 pages!) - including a lot of the evidence dcn pushed to unseal. includes internal email threads behind prior claims. looks damning. will link to prior threads in a bit. /1
In the thousands of pages, we learn Publicis in France was especially concerned suggesting clients significantly reduce spend leading to their largest client, P&G, supposedly ceasing all spend. They estimated differences of 40-50% in claimed reach vs census in certain targets. /2
We also see Alex Schultz (now CMO) breaking down the source of inflated reach which follow-up docs show he accurately assessed as mostly due to #2 - lying about age and #3 - fake and duplicate accounts. Both listed as "millions" of the inflation... /3
Read 17 tweets
23 Dec 21
Thankfully northern Virginia hasn’t been a very interesting case study on Covid but I worry it’s about to be one. Heavily vaccinated with cases going vertical hockey sticking the last few weeks. /1
It’s so very odd to see Alexandria and Arlington near the top of the cases per capita charts for Virginia after eighteen months of this. So-early on quarantining, masks, vax and double-vaxed albeit majority not yet boosted (important). /2
I hear the White House leaning heavily into the lower hospitalization per infection rate but not sure public grasps reports indicating omicron penetrating double-vaxed and reinfects easier so the denominator is larger with people protected from serious outcomes. /3
Read 5 tweets

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