Meta was ordered to sell off its GIF empire

The UK’s antitrust authority finalized its decision to force Facebook parent company Meta to sell off Giphy, the GIF search engine and database it bought for $315 million in 2020.

In a press release, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that Meta’s takeover of Giphy could decrease competitors’ access to GIFs and give the company an unfair advantage in the social media and digital advertising markets. The decision ended a lengthy appeals process that began last year.