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Facebook lawsuits present the social-media behemoth with its biggest regulatory threat yet
11 December 2020 00:00
Duration 25:01
It’s hard to understate the significance of the two lawsuits targeting Facebook that were announced in the United States this week. The ambition of the court action by the US Federal Trade Commission and a collection of 48 states and territories is, quite simply, staggering. If enforcers have their way, Facebook could be broken up, its future acquisitions could be challenged and the novel theory of antitrust harm centering on privacy and innovation could wreak havoc on the social-media platform’s business model. And in another setback for tech giants this week, Australia’s bold plan to force both Facebook and Google to pay news publishers for content entered the home stretch.
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Editorial Team
James Panichi Senior Editor, Asia Pacific

James, an Australian journalist with over 25 years’ experience in print and electronic media, is spearheading MLex’s coverage of regulatory risk in Australia and New Zealand. In 2016, James was appointed as MLex’s managing editor for continental Europe, overseeing the Brussels bureau’s coverage of EU regulatory affairs and managing a team of 16 journalists in Brussels and Geneva. Previously James worked for the European Voice newspaper, before joining the European operation of US political website... Read more
Khushita Vasant Senior Correspondent, Antitrust

Khushita covers US antitrust enforcement and litigation for MLex. A former Brussels hand writing about antitrust & mergers for the Policy and Regulatory Report (PaRR), she has covered the EU's actions against Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon to name a few. Khushita specialises in tech and patent policy coverage which featured in the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards. Previously as a financial journalist for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, she wrote about monetary... Read more
Laurel Henning Senior Correspondent

Laurel is a senior correspondent covering data privacy and security, antitrust and mergers and acquisitions across Australia and New Zealand. Prior to that, Laurel spent a year spearheading MLex’s activist investment coverage, looking at boardroom disputes and shareholder campaigns agitating for changes to company strategy. Laurel joined MLex in 2013 and reported for five years on European energy and climate policies from Brussels. In that time, Laurel covered the regulation of emissions and technological developments... Read more