European Commission (EC) EVP Margrethe Vestager (pictured) claimed Facebook’s major global outage this week showcased the need for greater choice in the tech market and reduced reliance on a few big players in the industry.

In a tweet following the temporary shutdown of Facebook services, Vestager said alternatives and choice in technology were necessary, adding this was a specific aim of the EC’s Digital Markets Act.

The act proposed by the regulator aims to impose stricter rules on digital platforms to ensure interoperability and ban discrimination in favour of own services. It would also result in big players being unable to take advantage of unfair behaviour.

The global outage caused Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram to be unavailable for nearly six hours.

Telegram capitalises
In a separate blog, CEO of rival messaging service Telegram Pavel Durov said the app gained more than 70 million new users in the hours of Facebook services outage, alongside “record” activity on the platform.

He explained the company managed to handle “the unprecedented growth” and urged users to keep using the app, pledging Telegram “won’t fail you when others will”.