US Representative Seek To Unwind Facebook's Instagram, WhatsApp Acquisitions: Bloomberg

• Silicon Valley and House Oversight Committee Democrat Ro Khanna sought to unwind Facebook Inc’s (NASDAQ: FB) Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions and more vigorous antitrust enforcement and privacy regulations, Bloomberg reports.

• Khanna cited AT&T Inc’s (NYSE: T) and Standard Oil Co’s breakups as precedents.

• In Dec., the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which reviewed and approved Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions in 2012 and 2014, respectively, filed a lawsuit seeking to split the companies.

• Khanna also endorsed Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar’s bill, which compelled the technology companies to prove the takeover’s anti-competitiveness.

• Last week, Democrats led by Representative David Cicilline introduced legislation to force Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), and other giants to divest or exit critical businesses.

• Khanna also sought guidelines to regulate platform content alluding to Facebook and Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR).

• Khanna also emphasized more robust privacy and antitrust regulations.

• Khanna’s proposal, first introduced in 2018, sought net neutrality, which forbade broadband providers from content favoritism, protection against mass government surveillance, and higher control over individual data.

• Price action: FB shares closed higher by 0.24% at $337.58 in the premarket session on the last check Monday.

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