Mark Zuckerberg testified in a Federal Trade Commission antitrust trial and defended Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp against monopoly claims. He argued that Meta competes with various social media platforms and emphasised the company’s focus on connecting users with friends and family while also learning about the world, according to a report by Bloomberg.
FTC highlighted Zuckerberg’s emails from 2011 to 2012, in which he referred to competition from Instagram.
In September 2011, Zuckerberg said, “If Instagram continues to kick a— on mobile or if Google buys them, then over the next few years they could easily add pieces of their service that copy what were doing now and if they have a growing number of people’s photos, then that’s a real issue for us.” The Meta founder acknowledged the emails cited by FTC.
What did Mark Zuckerberg say?
Allowing people to connect with friends and family “remains one of our priorities,” the report quoted Zuckerberg. However, “we’ve always been a service that lets you discover and learn about what’s going on in the world.”
While answering a question by the FTC’s lead trial lawyer, Daniel Matheson, Zuckerberg referred to the creation of the Facebook news feed in 2006 as facilitating “real connections to actual friends.” He further claimed to buy Instagram because of its camera technology, not because of its social network.
What did FTC claim?
FTC has raised the alarm about Meta’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, stating that it has a monopoly in the market. However, Meta refused these allegations and claimed that his company had many competitors.
“For more than 100 years, American public policy has insisted firms must compete if they want to succeed,” the report quoted Matheson. “The reason we are here is that Meta broke the deal.”
If the FTC’s claims remain, the integration of Instagram and WhatsApp may disrupt two of the world’s most popular digital consumer products. It may also erase hundreds of billions of dollars in Meta’s market value, the report said.
Meta’s ‘Killer Acquisitions’
The FTC claimed Meta’s purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp were “killer acquisitions” that stopped these companies from competing.
In 2010, “Meta was faced with a sea change in competitive conditions,” the report quoted Matheson, highlighting the growing mobile market. “They decided that competition was too hard and it would be easier to buy out their rivals than to compete with them.”
Apart from WhatsApp and Instagram, Meta also considered buying Snap Inc. in 2013 for $6 billion; however, the Snapchat owner did not accept the offer.
Matheson also referred to “smoking gun” emails from Meta executives, including one from 2012 by Zuckerberg, where he called the Instagram deal a means to “neutralize a competitor.”
He also claimed that following the acquisition of Instagram, Meta “fundamentally manipulated the experience” to protect Facebook. Even though this is a “rational business decision,” he said that it “offends the policy” of the antitrust laws.
Who are Meta’s competitors?
While refusing FTC allegations, Meta lawyer Mark Hansen said the company’s competitors include TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, iMessage and X.
He referred to TikTok’s January 2025 ban, stating that both Facebook and Instagram saw a surge in usage while TikTok was down. Facebook saw 20% “more usage” during that time, while Instagram usage increased 17%, Hansen said. “The FTC’s entire case turns on convincing the court that Meta doesn’t compete with TikTok,” the report quoted Meta’s lawyer.
FTC started the probe against Meta in 2019 under Donald Trump’s first term as the US President. The company was sued in 2020. The former FTC Chair Lina Khan, who served under the Biden administration, advanced the case, which is now being handled by Chair Andrew Ferguson, named by President Donald Trump as the agency head in January.
