Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked Jack Dorsey whether Facebook's decision to cut off Vine led to the demise of Twitter's beloved video-sharing platform at today's Senate hearing.
"Could you tell me about the actual impact of Facebook's actions on Vine's business, Vine's ability to compete and your decision to shut down the service?" Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, asked Dorsey.
Dorsey said that Facebook's actions made it "challenging" for Vine to compete, leading to the app's shutdown in 2016.
"I don't know about the intent on the other side but I know our own experience was, we found it extremely challenging to compete ... and ultimately decided that the ball moved past us and we shut it down," Dorsey said. "Again, I don't know the specifics and the tactics and what was done, but we did find it [to be a] very, very challenging market to enter even though we existed prior to some of our peers doing the same thing."
Klobuchar mentioned Vine as a potential example of Facebook squashing an upcoming competitor.