The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated legal proceedings against Meta, alleging that the company has established an illegal monopoly in social media through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The antitrust agency aims to prove the necessity of revoking these deals. This was reported by Reuters.
According to the FTC, the acquisitions of these companies were intended to eliminate competitors that could threaten Facebook's dominance as the main social networking platform. The lawsuit was filed in 2020 during Donald Trump's first presidential term.
Meta's General Counsel, Jennifer Newstead, has described this case as weak and a hindrance to investment in technology.
"It is absurd that the FTC is trying to dismantle a major American company while the administration is working to support the Chinese TikTok," Newstead wrote.
Meta has regularly reached out to Trump since his election, distancing itself from content moderation that Republicans consider censorship, and donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration. Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has also visited the White House multiple times in recent weeks.
Zuckerberg is expected to testify in court, where he will be questioned about emails in which he proposed purchasing Instagram to eliminate a potential competitor to Facebook and expressed concerns that WhatsApp might evolve from an encrypted messaging service into a social network.
In court documents, Meta argues that its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 were beneficial to users. The company also contends that Zuckerberg's previous statements have become irrelevant given the current fierce competition from TikTok, YouTube, and Apple's iMessage.
The FTC believes that Meta holds a monopoly position in the market for platforms connecting friends and family. It states that Meta's primary competitors in the U.S. are only Snapchat and MeWe, while platforms like X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit, which focus on content sharing among strangers based on shared interests, are not considered direct competitors.
The trial is set for July 2025. If the FTC prevails, it will then have to demonstrate that the forced divestiture of Meta's assets, such as Instagram or WhatsApp, would genuinely restore competition in the market.
