The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated legal action against Meta, accusing the corporation of establishing an illegal monopoly in social media by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. The antitrust agency will seek to prove the merits of overturning these deals, according to Reuters.
The FTC claims that these acquisitions were aimed at eliminating competitors that could threaten Facebook's status as the leading social media platform. The lawsuit was filed in 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump.
Meta's legal chief, Jennifer Newstead, described the case in her blog as weak and detrimental to technology investments.
"It is absurd that the FTC is trying to dismantle a major American company at the same time the administration is attempting to save Chinese TikTok," Newstead wrote.
Meta has consistently reached out to Trump since his election, refraining from content moderation that Republicans consider censorship and donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration. 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 regarding emails in which he proposed purchasing Instagram to eliminate a potential competitor to Facebook, as well as expressing concerns that WhatsApp, initially an encrypted messaging service, could evolve into a social network.
In court documents, Meta argues that the acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 was beneficial for users. The company also claims that previous statements made by Zuckerberg are outdated given the current fierce competition from TikTok (ByteDance), YouTube (Google), and Apple's iMessage.
The FTC believes that Meta holds a monopoly position in the market for platforms for connecting with friends and family. According to them, the main competitors of Meta in the U.S. are only Snapchat and MeWe, while services 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 scheduled for July 2025. If the FTC wins, in the second phase of the proceedings, it will need to prove that the forced divestiture of Meta's assets, such as Instagram or WhatsApp, will indeed help restore competition in the market.