The photo app PHHHOTO has filed an antitrust petition against Meta (formerly known as Facebook) for apparently copying its features for Instagram. It also claimed that this isn’t the first antitrust case against Facebook. The company affirmed that Facebook showed interest in working with it and has facsimiled its content, thereby hiding its name from search results, which kicked off PHHHOTO out of business.
“The Phhhoto app created short GIF videos that were published by Facebook in the name of “Boomerang” are not the actual creation of Facebook,” said the company. The app additionally has the feature of clubbing up all five photos into a single frame that can be shared on Instagram. Facebook has been further accused of blocking Phhhoto from Instagram’s API.
Phhhoto app, which was set up in 2014, has to cease its operations by 2017 even though it has more than 3.7 million monthly users on its onset, including BBeyoncé, Joe Jonas, Chrissy Teigen, and Bella Hadid.
Read More: Facebook shuts down Facial Recognition Feature
“The actions of Facebook and Instagram destroyed Phhhoto as a viable business and ruined the company’s prospects for investment. Phhhoto failed as a direct result of Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct,” Phhhoto said in the complaint filed in US District Court.
It also added that Phhhoto was established to grow into a massive social networking giant with similar capabilities as other social networking and media companies with which Facebook did not interfere.
Though Phhhoto is demanding Facebook for its monetary damages, the Facebook officials informed The Verge that “this suit is without merit and they would shield themselves in the court.”
