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Watchdog: 'Facebook Is Trying To Create Its Own Currency'

SANTA MONICA (CBS) — A Westside consumer advocate group is calling on the world's most popular social networking website to stop issuing what it calls  "funny" money.

Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission asking for an injunction against Facebook's virtual currency.

KNX 1070's Ed Mertz reports the complaint alleges the currency system known as "Facebook Credits" used to play games on the social-networking site violates antitrust law.

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"Today, we're looking at the promise of Mark Zuckerberg's picture on dollar bills," said Court. "That's the virtual equivalent of what's happening on Facebook right now."

Starting Friday, the social media giant will require game developers to exclusively use the currency in their games — and without lower prices outside Facebook, developers must pay a fee for all Facebook Credit purchases.

"Facebook is trying to create its own currency," said Court. "When any company has a half-billion people in it like Facebook, and they start to print their own money, it becomes very dangerous.

As of Thursday morning, there has been no official response from Facebook to the complaint.

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