Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Facebook is facing a federal lawsuit from mobile app developers that allege the company revoked access to data in an attempt to stifle competition.
The suit, which is seeking class-action status, argues that the company “identified and categorized potential market threats, then extinguished those threats” by cutting them off from access to data on its platform. Facebook, the suit alleges, “moved aggressively to shut out entirely direct competitors,” like WeChat, by revoking access to its platform.
“The net effect of Facebook’s anticompetitive scheme is one of the largest unlawful monopolies ever seen in the United States—one protected by a far-reaching and effectively impenetrable…