Facebook gets sued over antitrust violation by Phhhoto

A defunct photo application, Phhhoto is suing Meta over the charges of copying its features and kicking it out of the market completely. Meta, formerly known as Facebook is being charged against a lawsuit on the basis of antitrust allegations against an upstart rival.

The rival claimed that Facebook, worked alongside it, copied its ideas and stole its users and drove it out of business.

Instagram’s famous Boomerang feature, which makes users record a GIF-like video was first introduced by Phhhoto. The defunct app said in its lawsuit that after Facebook feigned interest in working with it, the relationship didn’t work out. Facebook then took actions to kill its competition by removing hashtags mentioning ‘Instagram’.

Moreover, Instagram removed the application from its social graph by blocking the access of users so that they don’t connect with their friends through the platform.

Phhhoto made an interesting impact on iOS app charts right after its launch. Apart from the public, Facebook’s executives showed interest in the application, along with the CEO, Zuckerberg himself.

“On or about August 8, 2014, Zuckerberg downloaded and installed the app onto his phone, entered the phone number of his device into the Phhhoto app, created a personal account, and posted a profile picture of himself (reproduced below) to his new Phhhoto account,” the suit stated.

The suit also includes Zuckerberg’s own selfie using the ‘Phhhoto’ application.

Meta CEO Zuckerberg taking a selfie using Phhhoto application. (Image: Phhhoto)

The application’s co-founder Champ Benett told TechCrunch, that the company was never behind in calling out Facebook and its authorities for its lecherous motives.

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