Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. are getting dangerously close to a major legal battle, with the social media giant considering filing a lawsuit that could ultimately sway antitrust investigators.
A war between the titans
The conflict between the two companies centers on Apple's new iOS 14 policy (Apple shares - ticker AAPL), scheduled for this spring. This includes new privacy features that for the first time will require apps to ask for users' permission to track their activity on the web.
Such a feature, says Facebook (FB), would severely limit online advertising and destroy small businesses. The tension between companies has intensified for years. "As we have said several times, we believe Apple is acting anti-competitively by using control of the App Store to the benefit of its own profits and to the detriment of app developers and small businesses," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. declaration.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also spoke on the matter at the latest earnings meeting, saying Apple has every incentive to make the most of its dominant position to hurt competitors.
Apple CEO Tim Cook sharpened the hostility between the two companies on Thursday, though he didn't mention Facebook directly, arguing that a company based on people who engage in bad behavior and exploitation of data deserves not recognition but reform.
Cook upped the ante, emphasizing the consequences of choices that often favor the dissemination of conspiracy theories and instigation of violence due to their high following, or algorithms that highlight extremist groups on social media that they then thousands of users participate.
Today's insights. The implications of tomorrow.
The conflict between the two companies underscores conflicting business approaches: Apple slavishly insists on the consumer privacy philosophy where the customer pays for their internet experience.
Facebook, by contrast, relies on its members' data to fuel its advertising activity. Ironically, a legal battle between the tech titans could harm them on the antitrust front, as both are under investigation for the same things they accuse each other of, says Elizabeth Renieris, founding director of Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics. Lab at the University of Notre Dame.
"What this feud proves more than anything else is that Facebook and Apple have tremendous gatekeeping powers in the market," he said. “It demonstrates how well Facebook controls customer or audience access through its ad ecosystem,” said Renieris. "At the same time, the controversy reveals how much power Apple has in mediating access to our personal data through its engineering choices and political decisions."
