The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated a lawsuit against Meta, alleging the creation of an illegal monopoly in social media through the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. The antitrust agency aims to challenge the validity of these acquisitions. Reuters reports on the development.
The FTC claims that the purchases were intended to eliminate competitors that could threaten Facebook's status as the leading social media platform. The lawsuit was filed in 2020 during the first term of President Donald Trump.
Meta's legal chief, Jennifer Newstead, has described the case as weak and detrimental to investment in technology.
"It's absurd that the FTC is trying to dismantle a major American company while the administration is working to support the Chinese TikTok," Newstead stated.
Since Trump's election, Meta has consistently reached out to him, rejecting content moderation that Republicans view as censorship and donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration. Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also visited the White House several times in recent weeks.
Zuckerberg is expected to testify in court, where he will be questioned about emails in which he proposed buying Instagram to eliminate a potential competitor to Facebook and expressed concerns that WhatsApp, a messaging service, could become a social network.
In court documents, Meta argues that the acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 has been beneficial for users. The company also claims that Zuckerberg's earlier statements have lost relevance due to the current fierce competition from TikTok (ByteDance), YouTube (Google), and Apple's iMessage.
The FTC believes that Meta holds a monopoly in the market for platforms that allow communication with friends and family, stating that its main competitors in the U.S. are only Snapchat and MeWe. In contrast, platforms like X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit, which focus on content sharing among strangers based on shared interests, are not considered direct competitors to Meta.
The trial is set for July 2025. If the FTC prevails, it will have to demonstrate that forcing Meta to divest assets such as Instagram or WhatsApp would indeed help restore competition in the market.