Will Instagram and WhatsApp stay with Zuckerberg’s Meta? FTC antitrust trial starts Monday

Lawyers representing the FTC and Meta are set to present their opening statements before US District Judge James Boasberg, kicking off a trial likely to run for seven to eight weeks.

The case will involve extensive evidence and testimony from multiple witnesses. The government is expected to call Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri to the stand, reported NPR.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg personally lobbied Trump to urge the FTC to drop the case, a claim Meta has denied.

Zuckerberg and Trump shared a strained relationship, partly due to Trump’s removal from Meta’s platforms after the January 2021 Capitol riot.

In a statement issued late last week, Meta spokesperson Christopher Sgro said the FTC’s lawsuit “defies reality” and reiterated that the company operates in a highly competitive social media market.

“The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others,” Sgro said.

“More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final,” he added.

What are the FTC’s charges against Meta?

The US competition watchdog says Meta, which owns Facebook, bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to kill competition and create a monopoly, reported BBC.

The case was first filed during Donald Trump’s first administration, gained momentum during Joe Biden’s term, and is now heading to trial under the leadership of FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson.

The government argues that Meta followed a “buy or bury” strategy in its acquisitions, targeting companies it saw as threats, either by acquiring them or driving them out of business.

In a 2012 internal email that government lawyers plan to present, Zuckerberg wrote that the purchase of Instagram was meant to “neutralize a potential competitor.” The FTC claims this behaviour violates federal antitrust laws, NPR report said.

To loosen Meta’s grip on the social media industry, the government argues that the company must be forced to undo its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.