FTC v. Meta: in opening arguments, FTC lawyers accuse Meta of a “buy-or-bury strategy” to cement a social networking monopoly by buying Instagram and WhatsApp
How is this even a question! [image] Kyung Sook / @kyungsookl : I didn't understand why facebook suddenly reversed course, allowed DJT to return to facebook and Zuckerberg attended the inauguration. Now I understand. www.npr.org/2025/04/13/n... Mastodon: Mathew Ingram / @mathewi@journa.host : Whatever the merits of the case, I think there is a non-zero chance that Trump waves a magic wand and says Meta is blameless and shuts down the FTC's case: https://www.techmeme.com/... Threads: Andy Cheng / @firerock31 : Hindsight is always 20/20 The FTC says Meta illegally built a social media monopoly by using a newer antitrust idea: “killer acquisitions”. Buying potential future rivals before they become a threat like Instagram & WhatsApp. If that holds up in court, it raises many questions: - What about Google buying Android or DoubleClick? … @spyglass_feed : If the government were to force Meta to sell off Instagram, the entire company is fucked. X: Alex Heath / @alexeheath : I just watched the opening arguments for the FTC vs. Meta antitrust case in DC. The goal is to break up IG and WhatsApp. IMO, the FTC has an uphill battle in convincing the judge that Meta's only competition is Snap and MeWe(???) for the purpose of this case. To poke holes in the FTC's market definition, Meta shared data illustrating how its app usage surged when TikTok was briefly offline due to the US ban. Yet, TikTok is not a “competitor” for the purpose of this case. It's strange. Brian Albrecht / @briancalbrecht : 2 reasons: 1. It's not 2012, so the court is facing the world in 2025. 2. It's not illegal to buy instead of build. Julia Alexander / @loudmouthjulia : Ah yes, famous Meta competitors, eBay and Quora. [image] Rohit Chopra / @choprausa : The @FTC should continue to resist efforts from the company to censor the trial or sidestep accountability through a cheap settlement. Jeffrey Westling / @jeffreywestling : Not including TikTok as a competitor is wild, unless its just due to the ban/not ban/whatever is going on with it. Especially if the entire case is really centered on the Instagram acquisition. Katie Notopoulos / @katienotopoulos : Ok fuck it, I'll all in on MeWe. It's got a totally inscrutable logon system and I have no idea what I'm doing but it's my new home Luke Goldstein / @lukewgoldstein : These slides weren't posted online yet. Meta is selectively leaking court docs, contrary to the agreed terms it forced on FTC Andy Stone / @andymstone : “...the FTC's entire case consists of convincing the Court that Instagram doesn't compete with TikTok. Which makes no sense.” Amy Klobuchar / @amyklobuchar : Today the major antitrust trial against Meta kicks off. When dominant companies use their size to buy up their competition, consumers suffer. Strong antitrust enforcement like this is key to giving consumers more choice and strengthening our economy. Joel Kaplan / @joel_kaplan : What became clear today is that the FTC's case hinges on the preposterous idea that Meta spends more time competing with some app called MeWe than with TikTok. Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Meta is pumping out their confusion on antitrust market definition. Warning...uninformed tech press may regurgitate it. FTC actually has this later in trial. I'll be at desk around 6:30pm to explain. But Zuckerberg looks dead to rights on Insta deal which will climax in morning. [image] Adam Kovacevich / @adamkovac : I joined @YahooFinance this morning to discuss the FTC's antitrust trial against Meta, starting today. The stakes go beyond Meta's breakup. If DOJ and FTC can successfully unwind deals that they initially approved, that's bad for startups, investors, and acquirers. [video] @morningsmaria : FTC making sure Meta-like ‘monopoly’ can ‘never arise again’: Chairman Ferguson [video] Ben Smith / @semaforben : How Trumpworld sees Meta @mrddmia : Mark Zuckerberg spent $400 million to chase Trump out of office in 2020. Then Biden Democrats subjected Trump to 4 years of lawfare. Zuckerberg thought he could spend $1 million after the 2024 election to buy antitrust amnesty. Looking forward to Zuckerberg's public testimony. Zamaan Qureshi / @zamaan_qureshi : Let's get this started 🍿 Brad Freeman / @stockmarketnerd : Dear FTC chairman, $META is not a monopoly. Thanks. That is all. *posted on X* Brendan Benedict / @bbenedict33 : One key area of focus that FTC is previewing in its opening statement in Meta breakup trial - the funders. Many contemporaneous statements from Sequoia Capital on viability of Instagram and Whatsapp. #ftcvmeta Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Seriously. Seriously. Meta/Facebook/Instagram wrote this in a press release today, “It's absurd that the FTC is trying to break up a great American company.” This is a company competing for worst reputation among the top 100 brands (Axios Harris 100). John Mark Newman / @johnmarknewman : If you have a second today, send some good vibes to the @FTC trial team, squaring off in court against @Meta starting today. I've had the privilege of working w/ many of them. You won't find a harder-working, smarter group of civil servants anywhere. https://www.npr.org/... Stephen Kent / @stephenkentx : America needs an effective FTC that watches out for monopolistic practices harming consumers, and this very dated case against Meta isn't it. https://consumerchoicecenter.org/ ... @econliberties : “Despite Meta and Mark Zuckerberg's attempts to lobby their way out of accountability, there's no stopping nearly five years of bipartisan antitrust momentum.” Trial begins today in FTC v. Meta. Statement from @LeeHepner👇 [image] Lee Hepner / @leehepner : If you shut down the movie theater, people will go to the restaurant instead. They may compete for foot traffic, but the movie theater doesn't compete on the quality of food. Importantly, even Meta and TikTok executives understand their own disjointed use cases. [image] Forums: r/NPR : The biggest trial in Meta's history starts Monday. Here's what to know See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
The opening arguments extend the FTC's earlier contention that Meta had chosen acquisition over competition in virtual reality and its effort to test a novel antitrust theory in the Within case. Here, the agency applies the same basic concern to Meta's much more consequential earlier purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp.
The case also puts fresh weight on Meta's internal assessment of its portfolio: related coverage reported that Zuckerberg considered separating Instagram in 2018 as its growth was hurting Facebook. That evidence could sharpen the dispute over whether the acquired services remained independent competitive threats.
First-order effects
- Meta must defend its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions as lawful competition rather than a strategy to preserve a social-networking monopoly; the FTC is pursuing remedies that could include divestiture.
- The trial makes the ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp—not just Meta's future dealmaking—the central commercial and legal stake for Meta, the FTC, and the services' users and advertisers.
Second-order effects
- The proceedings give the FTC a prominent test of an acquisition-focused theory after its final loss in the Within challenge, potentially informing how aggressively it brings comparable cases against completed technology deals.
- A finding for the FTC would make past internal discussions and evidence of competitive overlap more consequential in merger disputes; a Meta win would constrain that litigation approach without resolving broader privacy enforcement against the company.
Third-order effects
- If courts accept retrospective challenges to platform acquisitions as monopoly maintenance, large platforms could face more durable scrutiny of how acquired products are integrated and governed years after closing.
- The case is part of a broader shift from reviewing only proposed mergers toward testing whether completed acquisitions changed market structure—a shift whose reach will depend on the court's treatment of market definition, competition, and remedies.
The trend: US platform antitrust is increasingly testing whether historic acquisitions can be unwound when regulators argue they protected an incumbent's market power.