Frankfurt — Germany’s cartel office has found that Facebook abused its dominant market position, challenging the US social network’s model of monetising the personal data of its 2-billion users worldwide through targeted advertising. Presenting preliminary findings of its 20-month-old probe, the Federal Cartel Office said Facebook held a dominant position among social networks — a characterisation the company dismissed as "inaccurate". The case is being closely watched in Germany, where concerns over data privacy are strong due to a history of state surveillance under Nazi and Communist rule. Facebook has been running an ad campaign to try to allay those fears. Separately, Berlin will introduce a law in the new year imposing fines of up to €50m on social media platforms that fail quickly to remove posts that propagate hate speech — a crime in Germany. The competition authority objected to Facebook’s requirement that it gain access to third-party data when an account is opened — incl...
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