It’s true: Facebook has the obligation to separate from Giphy, its GIF publication platform. After a long battle in the United Kingdom for almost two years, the British competition gendarme (CMA) ordered the social network on Tuesday to sell its subsidiary.
According to the CMA, the merger of the two companies “could harm social media users and advertisers in the UK”. The competition authority had already fined Facebook £ 50.5 million for this merger it deemed illegal.
WhatsApp and Instagram in the viewfinder
Facebook was under the influence of investigation since June 2020 in this case, recalls Numerama. The CMA argued that by purchasing Giphy, Facebook could impede access to GIFs for some users or for its competitors. The situation would allow him to demand access to additional data from other social networks like Snapchat, Twitter or TikTok.
Clearly, Facebook is hindering the healthy and tough competition in the market. Beyond this decision arises the question of the dismantling of the tech giants, very current throughout the European Union. WhatsApp and Instagram, which belong to Facebook, renamed “Meta”, could meet the same fate as Giphy.
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