UK watchdog: Facebook’s ownership of Giphy hurts competition

By KELVIN CHAN
AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — Facebook’s ownership of Giphy will hurt competition for animated images, U.K. regulators said Thursday following an investigation. The Competition and Markets Authority said in provisional findings that the acquisition would hurt competition among social media platforms because there’s only one other big provider of GIFs, Google’s Tenor. Giphy’s library of short looping videos, or GIFs, are a popular tool for internet users sending messages or posting on social media. The deal will also reduce digital advertising competition by removing a potential challenger from the market, the watchdog said. Facebook said it disagreed with the preliminary findings, which it didn’t we believe to be supported by the evidence.