The high-stakes antitrust case that could force Meta to unwind Instagram and WhatsApp has officially wrapped. After six weeks of testimony and 38 witnesses, including Mark Zuckerberg himself, it is now up to Judge James E. Boasberg to make history, whichever way he rules.
The biggest tech antitrust case since United States v. Microsoft Corp.
The case, Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms, accuses the company of monopolizing social networking by acquiring rivals instead of competing with them, a notion about the company that is not exactly new. While Instagram’s acquisition in 2012 and WhatsApp’s acquisition in 2014 were both cleared by regulators at the time, the FTC now wants them reversed.
The core of the government’s argument lies in a set of internal emails and memos in which Meta executives express concern about rising competitors, and proceed to discuss the strategic benefits of buying them out.
Meta’s defense says it faces real competition from platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and… checks notes… MeWe, since users go to its properties for entertainment, not just to connect with friends. On the other hand, the FTC wants to define the market more narrowly: apps that primarily connect people socially, like Snapchat.
Market is king
As The Verge’s Nilay Patel likes to stress, antitrust cases like this one live and die by how the market is defined. Clear-cut cases have fallen short after failure to define the affected market successfully, so this will possibly be the pivotal question in Judge Boasberg’s decision, one way or another.
In fact, Judge Boasberg himself has already said the case hinges on that definition. If he sides with the FTC’s framing, Meta could be forced to divest both Instagram and WhatsApp, a decision that would mark the most aggressive regulatory action against a tech company since the Microsoft antitrust case in the late 90s.
Judge Boasberg has promised a ruling “expeditiously,” so it shouldn’t be long until either Meta or the FTC celebrates, while the other files an appeal.
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