FTC may try to delay Facebook’s plan to integrate its apps, Wall Street Journal reports

Facebook’s stock took a dive on Thursday following a report that federal regulators may seek to prevent the company from more tightly integrating its social media products.

The Federal Trade Commission is said to be considering asking for a court order to delay Facebook from making the services it owns, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, interoperable with one another, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Shares of Facebook fell more than 3 percent in afternoon trading Thursday after the news broke.

Facebook and the FTC declined to comment on the report.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pushed to unify the platforms as part of what he says is a wider shift in the company strategy in which user privacy will become more of a priority. But critics of the move fear that it could further entrench the company’s dominance and make it harder for regulators to break up the company in a potential antitrust lawsuit.

Earlier this year, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion to settle an FTC investigation into the company’s privacy practices. The company has also disclosed it is under a separate antitrust investigation by the FTC.