GIFs Were the Last Straw: Meta Gets First Order to Unwind Deal

Few would have predicted that short video loops of Kanye West or cats furiously typing on laptops would be the final straw for competition regulators.

Yet on Tuesday, the U.K. ordered Meta Inc.’s Facebook to sell Giphy, the animated file search engine it bought for $315 million in 2020, in part because the deal would attract even more users to Meta’s portfolio of products. Giphy gives users access to millions of GIFs, video clips often used to communicate in the digital age.

The decision from the Competition and Markets Authority is the first time a major global regulator has ...