US: FB’s plan to merge messaging services may raise antitrust concerns

Facebook’s reported plans to integrate its three messaging platforms could lead to additional regulatory scrutiny.

The New York Times reported on Friday, January 25, that Facebook plans to combine the technical infrastructure behind WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, though the apps will continue to function as separate services. The paper cited four people familiar with the company’s plans.

CNBC spoke with several antitrust lawyers who all said that Facebook’s move is unlikely to bring new antitrust action against the company.

Marc Rotenberg, president and executive director the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told the Times that Facebook’s plans would be “a terrible outcome for internet users,” and Representative Ro Khanna (Democrat-California) took to Twitter to voice his concern.

“This is why there should have been far more scrutiny during Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp which now clearly seem like horizontal mergers that should have triggered antitrust scrutiny,” Khanna wrote.

Facebook is facing pressure over its privacy practices and platform manipulation by foreign actors. At a hearing of international lawmakers in the UK in November, a Canadian representative suggested antitrust might be the solution to Facebook’s problems.

“What we’re regulating … are the symptoms,” said Charlie Angus, Canada’s vice chairman of the House of Commons’ standing committee on access to information, privac