The FTC isn’t giving up on its antitrust case against Meta
The Federal Trade Commission lost its antitrust case against Meta last year, but the regulator has not given up on its attempts to punish the social media company for its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. The FTC is appealing a ruling last year in which a federal judge found that the government failed to prove that Meta was currently operating as a monopoly.
“Meta has maintained its dominant position and posted profits for more than a decade, not through legitimate competition, but by purchasing its most significant competitive threats,” Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. “The Trump-Vance FTC will continue to defend its historic case against Meta to ensure that competition can thrive across the country, to the benefit of all Americans and all American businesses.”
The FTC initially filed antitrust charges against Facebook in 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term. The government argued that by acquiring apps it once competed with, Instagram and WhatsApp, the company had depressed competition in that area and ultimately harmed consumers. A trial last year saw testimony from several current and former executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg, who spoke at length about the pressure to compete with TikTok.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was ultimately persuaded by Meta’s arguments, writing that the success of YouTube and TikTok prevented Meta from “currently holding a monopoly,” even though the company had acted monopolistically in the past. If the FTC had won, it could have tried to force Meta to reverse its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. If his appeal is successful, this solution could be considered again.
News of plans to appeal the FTC is also a blow to Zuckerberg, who has spent the last year courting Trump and touting Meta’s plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure in the United States. In a statement, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the initial decision was “correct” and that “Meta will remain focused on innovation and investment in America.”
