Facebook News: 8-State Coalition Launches Antitrust Investigates Social Media Giant

Attorneys in eight states and the District of Columbia have opened an antitrust investigation into Facebook to determine the social media giant's impact on ad prices, acquisitions and personal data, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday.

In addition to New York and the district, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee are participating in the inquiry.

“Even the largest social media platform in the world must follow the law and respect consumers,” James said in a statement. “I am proud to be leading a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in investigating whether Facebook has stifled competition and put users at risk. We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook’s actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices, or increased the price of advertising.”

The step is the latest by states to push against Silicon Valley’s growing influence.

The House Judiciary Committee opened an antitrust investigation of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, also has met with several congressmen about Big Tech’s dominance.

“Basically what has happened is there is a commodities exchange now in the digital advertising space,” Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry told CNBC.

The Washington Post reported Texas will mount its own coalition in an antitrust investigation of Google, targeting Google’s advertising practices. Sources told the Post to expect an announcement similar to Friday's on Sept. 9th. More than 30 states are expected to participate.

“With all the investigations going on, there'll be multiple cases against multiple defendants on multiple theories [of harm],” a source told CNN Business.