In the dispute over Facebook's market power, the US antitrust authority FTC has filed a revised monopoly lawsuit against the Internet giant.
In the lawsuit submitted on Thursday, the FTC accuses the online network, among other things, of defending its dominant position with "anti-competitive takeovers".
Reference is made to the purchase of the online services Instagram in 2012 and Whatsapp in 2014.
"After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat," said FTC representative Holly Vedova.
"This behavior is no less anti-competitive than if Facebook bribed new app competitors to prevent them from entering the competition."
A federal judge had dismissed an initial FTC lawsuit against Facebook in June.
Among other things, he criticized the fact that the competition watchdog had not been able to "conclusively" demonstrate that Facebook had created a monopoly on the market for online networks.
The lawsuit contained "almost nothing concrete on the crucial question of how much power Facebook actually has," said the judge.
However, he allowed the FTC to submit a revised complaint, which the agency did now.
Facebook said it would examine the amended complaint and then comment in more detail. The dominant position of online giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon has drawn competition watchdogs in a number of countries.