Facebook: splitting off Instagram and WhatsApp is almost impossible

It’s nearly impossible to split off Instagram and WhatsApp, and if it were made mandatory by the government, it would cost billions of dollars and negatively impact users’ safety. Facebook says this in a document to defend itself against the breaking up of the company. Facebook calls the breaking up of the company a ‘complete nonstarter’. Reversing the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp would be virtually impossible due to the integration of the platforms that have since been deployed. It would cost billions of dollars to maintain individual platforms and splitting it up would degrade security and the user experience, according to a 14-page document that Facebook’s legal department drafted to defend itself against a threat from government plans to shut down the company. to split. The Wall Street Journal has seen the document, which is described as a preview for the defense against breaking up. Facebook also argues that a potential break-up requirement is against the law, as the Federal Trade Commission saw no objection to the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions in 2012 and 2014, respectively. is conducting a competition investigation into Facebook to see whether the platform’s size pushes competition from the market. At the beginning of this year, it was already announced that the FTC will be investigating acquisitions of Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Google to investigate the impact on competition, but that research mainly concerns small acquisitions.