FTC settlement gives Facebook leverage over competitors - The Washington Post

Also see Sandberg: Star Face for Facebook (Bloomberg Businessweek) for more on Facebook’s strategy

Now, as Facebook is preparing to file papers for a massive stock offering this week, its recent agreement with the FTC may help protect its dominance by discouraging competitors from launching social networks of their own, analysts say.

Anyone starting such a site, be it a big Silicon Valley firm or a college student in a dorm, will now have to wrestle with federal enforcement officials who are more carefully watching how personal information is shared on social networks, these experts say.

FTC settlement gives Facebook leverage over competitors - The Washington Post