Meta (Facebook) Ordered to Sell Giphy by UK Regulators

• The Competition and Markets Authority has ordered Meta to sell Giphy, stating the deal could harm social media users and advertisers in the UK

• The parent company of Facebook has disagreed with the decision and is considering making an appeal

• Facebook claims that Giphy was acquired to be integrated with Instagram to provide people with a room to express themselves

Meta, Facebook’s parent company has been ordered by the U.K.’s competition watchdog to sell acquired GIF-sharing platform Giphy.

This is coming after the Competition and Markets Authority disclosed on Tuesday that the deal could hurt advertisers in the UK and social media users.

The regulator stated that the acquisition of Giphy will reduce competition between social media platforms.

The deal also ultimately removes Giphy as a competition to Facebook in the display ad market.

A panel concluded that Meta’s acquisition will increase its already significant power in the market against other social media companies by limiting the access of other platforms to Giphy.

The result will be Facebook and other Facebook-owned platforms receiving more traffic, taking it higher than the 73% user time in the UK.

In addition, it was declared that Meta could also change the terms of access to Giphy’s GIFs and force rival platforms to provide more data before accessing GIFs.

Read also: Twitter Boss Jack Dorsey Resigns as CEO

Before signing the deal with Facebook last year, Giphy had launched its advertising platform and was set to expand to other countries including the U.K.

By acquiring Giphy, Facebook eliminated competition for its advertising services.

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