Lawmakers have had it out for facebook for a while last year a house judiciary subcommittee report accused the tech giant of anticompetitive behaviour and in december. Facebook got suit on monday. Those lawsuits were dismissed. It's a big win. For the social media company it also signals a rocky path forward for legislators both sides of the aisle trying to rein in big tech here to break down. the latest development is recode serene ghaffari high serene. Hey adam so let's start with the lawsuits. What were they about yes. The lawsuits basically accused facebook of acting as a monopoly to crush. Its competition two different lawsuits. One was filed by the federal trade commission or the ftc which is the top government agency for enforcing antitrust laws. And then there was a parallel lawsuit also filed by forty eight attorneys general from different states and territories in the us and they both essentially said the same thing that facebook's allegedly monopolistic practices leave consumers with less choices for which social networking apps. They wanna use and advertisers have less choices for aware. They want actually advertise reach. People lawsuits also said that. Facebook engage in a quote systemic strategy to eliminate their competition and that this was something really tactical that facebook was actively doing crush its competitors. What exactly did that strategy look like so. The lawsuit said that when facebook bought instagram. Back in two thousand twelve and remember at that time. Instagram was a startup. it was considered an up and coming rival to facebook They said that that was an example of something that facebook shouldn't have been allowed to do because in regulators view this was essentially facebook trying to stifle competition by eating it up and buying it rather than letting market competitor truly compete and they also point to win. Facebook bought the messaging app called whatsapp in two thousand fourteen. Again this up and coming service. That was rivaling. facebook and facebook went ahead and bought it today. More people are on. What's app than they are on facebook's own messenger product but that doesn't matter for facebook because it's all part of the facebook ecosystem now