Snapchat has kept a log of all the dirty ways that Facebook and Instagram adopted over the years to suppress competition.
An internal document dubbed Project Voldemort compiles Facebook's "hardball tactics" to squash Snapchat. Project Voldemort — named after the antagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series — came to light as part of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust investigation into the social media company founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
Snapchat Exposes Facebook's Competitive Moves
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Snap alleges that Facebook heavily dissuaded influencers from posting links to Snapchat on Instagram. Some were threatened that they will lose their verified status if they continue to share Snapchat content on their Instagram feeds.
Snap also believes that Instagram blocked Snapchat content, including photos and videos that use its famous filters as well as related hashtags, from the search bar and the app's Explore tab.
Eventually, Instagram disallowed users from posting links of their Snapchat profiles within the app.
Snap and Facebook have been clashing for years now. In 2016, Instagram launched Stories, a feature that allows users to share photos and videos that will disappear after 24 hours. Many criticized the move because Stories was a blatant copy of Snapchat's own Stories, which was introduced back in 2013.
The report also revealed Zuckerberg's attempts to purchase smaller companies that he saw as potential competitors. Facebook, in 2013, offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion.
The popular social media company also acquired Onavo, an Israeli startup that provided tools that allowed Facebook to track how users use competing apps. Onavo shuttered its doors earlier this year.
FTC Probes Facebook
In July, Facebook confirmed that the FTC has opened an antitrust investigation into the social media company's business practices. The Wall Street Journal report added that the FTC is speaking to Facebook's former and current competitors.
Facebook has just come out of an FTC investigation over the revelation that Cambridge Analytica accessed the data of up to 87 million users. A settlement was reached in July, and Facebook was made to pay a $5 billion fine — the second largest to be levied by the agency.
