1.Which two U.S. federal government agencies, and what state official(s), enforce anti-trust laws?

2.Who are the Big Tech companies governments are currently targeting or scrutinizing, and what are their alleged sins/crimes? Use company name, and list with bullet points.

Source:

Big tech and antitrust

A formidable alliance takes on Facebook. Investors don't seem to care

Letitia James, New York's attorney-general, couldn't be blunter in describingtheantitrust case lodged on December 9th againsttheworld's biggest social network. "By using its vast troves of data and money Facebook has squashed or hindered whatthecompany perceived as potential threats. They've reduced choices for consumers, they stifled innovation and they degraded privacy protections for millions of Americans," she declared, summarizingtheaccusations. Forty-five states joined her bipartisan coalition againstthegiant. Separately,theFederal Trade Commission (ftc) sued Facebook for monopolistic practices in social-networking and demanded remedies includingthefirm's break-up.

A few years ago coordinated action by 46 states andtheftc that could split Facebook apart was unthinkable, says Lina Khan, an antitrust scholar at Columbia Law School. Butthecase is about more than narrow competition law.Thecontroversies around Facebook's privacy practices,thespread of fake news and conspiracy theories ontheplatform, and its exploitation by authoritarian regimes mean regulators and politicians are set on forcing change.

Will they succeed?Thecases look strong. Experts judge Facebook to bethelowest-hanging antitrust fruit, alongside Google (which America's Justice Department sued over alleged monopoly abuses in October). Amazon and Apple are inthecrosshairs, but those cases will take longer, if they come at all, says an antitrust expert.

TheFacebook lawsuits center on its acquisitions.Thefirm maintained its monopoly in personal social-networking by systematically buying up potential competitors, both contend-notably Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. A smoking gun could be Onavo, an Israeli firm Facebook bought in 2013-to protect user data,thefirm said.Thesuits claim it in fact used Onavo to track rival apps' popularity and select acquisition targets. Another alleged anti-competitive practice was blocking rival app developers from its platform. As consumer harm is hard to prove against big tech's mostly free products,thesuits try a novel argument: that damage is done to users' privacy and advertisers' choice.

Facebook will argue that its market is social media, which is broader and more competitive than social-networking. TikTok, a Chinese-owned short-video app, is now more popular than Instagram among American teenagers.Theinternal Facebook emails on whichthelawsuits hinge hardly paint a picture of a lazy monopolist; Mr Zuckerberg and his lieutenants see competitive threats everywhere. Facebook can also argue that breaking it up is well-nigh impossible. Last year it started integrating Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger more deeply. Andtheftc's complaint fails to mention it clearedtheInstagram and WhatsApp deals.Thegovernment "now wants a do-over", sending a chilling warning to American business that "no sale will ever be final", Facebook said. Markets shrugged offthenews. Facebook's shares dipped by 2%, in line withtherest of big tech. Investors either see forced divestitures as unlikely, says Brent Thill of Jefferies, an investment bank-or spy even more money to be made from spin-offs. *