The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 48 other states filed an antitrust lawsuit against social-media behemoth Facebook on Wednesday (Dec 9), which, if successful, could lead to the court-ordered breakup of the company, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The FTC accused the social-media giant of buying and freezing out small startups to choke competition. The suit also sought to end Facebook’s control over WhatsApp and Instagram and called for unwinding its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, two of its landmark deals.

“Facebook recognizes that its continued ownership and operation of Instagram and WhatsApp…neutralizes their direct competitive threats,” the FTC lawsuit states.

“Facebook continues to monitor the industry for competitive threats, and likely would seek to acquire any companies that constitute, or could be repositioned to constitute, threats to its personal social networking monopoly.” the suit added.

The FTC is seeking “divestiture of [Facebook] assets, divestiture or reconstruction of businesses (including, but not limited to, Instagram and/or WhatsApp), and such other relief sufficient to restore the competition that would exist absent the conduct alleged in the Complaint.”

“Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition,” said Ian Conner, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive.”

New York attorney general Letitia James also announced on Wednesday (Dec 9) that she would be leading a group of 48 state attorneys general in a separate lawsuit against Facebook, writing on Twitter that the company held an “illegal monopoly.”

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