Some antitrust lawyers are skeptical of the announcement last week that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition is naming a 17-staff lawyer task force to examine antitrust issues around big tech — which could possibly include reviewing some past mergers such as Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram.

The task force announcement came even as Facebook was reported to be negotiating with the FTC over a multibillion-dollar fine for violating a 2011 consent decree in connection with the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. The company shared millions of users' data with an app developer in 2014 that in turn sold data to Cambridge Analytica.The FTC started a probe of the incident last March. Facebook also has come under fire from German antitrust regulators for its advertising business model.

FTC Chairman Joseph Simons, a Republican who was appointed to the role by President Donald Trump last year and who prior to that was partner and co-chair of the antitrust group at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, said the task force would monitor competition in the tech industry and take enforcement actions when warranted.