What are they into, tiktoks/instagrams (I'm still annoyed that I can't know if an instagram link is going to be an image, or a video, these days—it's for photos, damnit!) with captions? That's just gifs with worse UI.

You appear to have confused "popular" and "profitable"

> “Marketplace commentary and user sentiment towards GIFs on social media shows that they have fallen out of fashion as a content form, with younger users in particular describing GIFs as ‘for boomers’ and ‘cringe’,” the company wrote in a submission to the CMA.

actually reading the article in full, it's clear GIPHY and Meta are mentioning this with a BIASED motive to present their investment as non competitive.

CMA isn't a quango - its absolutely a direct government org, established by Act of Parliament. Nothing "Non-Governmental" to see here, its run by the Department for Business and Trade.

From wikipedia:

Type Non-ministerial government department

"A non-ministerial department (NMD) is a government department in its own right, but does not have its own minister. However, it is accountable to Parliament through its sponsoring ministers."

> https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-bodies-reform

UK ministers (politicians) can absolutely influence the CMA, there is no vote on its leaders - they are simply appointed by the Business Secretary, who can pick whomever they find most favorable to their own objectives. The Business Secretary can be replaced at any time without a vote by the Prime Minister too in a reshuffle.

The only real check on the CMA would be the UK's judicial review process, if a decision was especially egregious.

Sorry, I meant bureaucrat, not politician necessarily. Still appointed by a politician, though