There’s more legal trouble for Facebook, and this time, its company’s plans of selling API access in the past that have come to light. And all of this is coming at a time, when people have been perpetually in a state of unrest regarding their privacy online already.
In this fresh legal battle which the social media giant is set to embroil itself in, lawsuit has been filed by a bikini photo finding app – Six4Three. According to the Wall Street Journal which reviewed their lawsuit, Facebook has been alleged to be involved in anti-competition practices. The lawsuit discusses Facebook’s plans in 2012 to sell their API access on a yearly basis. Over half a decade ago, Facebook wasn’t the gigantic cooperation it is now, and the company had a failed IPO (Initial Public Offering). During those desperate times, the ocmpany was looking for every option they could, to make money.
As a result, an employee sent an internal email discussing a way to generate revenue. In the email, the employee discussed selling their Platform API access to developers for $250,000 per year. Employees also discussed offering Tinder extended access to users’ friends’ data. Luckily, it turned out Facebook axed the idea and decided against selling API access. And to this date continues to give our access to their API for free to developers. “I can’t be clearer on this topic: We don’t sell data.”, stated Mark during his congressional hearing in April.
In the Six4Three lawsuit however, they vehemently claim Facebook actually struck a deal with Tinder, Amazon, Royal Bank of Canada, Airbnb, and Netflix. And that companies like themselves were a victim of discrimination as they couldn’t afford to pay such huge sums of money every year.
Buyers who would not meet the arbitrary minimum requirements set by Facebook were shut out of the market, as was the case with Plaintiff since it could not afford to spend $250,000 per year on unrelated advertising expenses with Facebook
said their lawyer David Godkin.
First the Cambridge Analytica scandal, then Zuckerberg’s hearing and until recently – a string of high profile departures from the company; the saying, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions” couldn’t be more appropriate in the case of Facebook Inc.
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