The United Kingdom’s antitrust regulator has rejected Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy and ordered the social network to divest the GIF-sharing platform, claiming that the deal harms social media users and advertisers by restricting competition for animated images.
The Competition and Markets Authority stated on Tuesday that the agreement will allow Facebook to ‘increase its already strong market dominance’ by blocking or limiting access to Giphy GIFs on other platforms and boosting traffic to Facebook-owned sites. It has previously been stated that there is only one other major distributor of GIFs, Google’s Tenor.
The regulator was also concerned that the acquisition would eliminate possible competition in the United Kingdom’s 7-billion-pound ($9.3 billion) display advertising industry, which Facebook controls half of.
Facebook, now known as Meta, stated that it disagrees with the ruling and is examining all options, including an appeal.
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