Antitrust: Meta calls for FTC to drop lawsuit

Published: 2025-05-16 04:04:22 ET META

Published on 05/16/2025 at 04:04

By Nicolas Thomas

( with Reuters) Meta Platforms, Facebook's parent company, on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which accuses the group of maintaining an illegal monopoly on personal social networks. Meta believes that the regulatory agency has not provided the necessary evidence to support its allegations in this high-stakes antitrust lawsuit.

The trial, which began on April 14 in Washington, seeks to prove that Meta, still known as Facebook at the time of the events, acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 with the aim of eliminating emerging competitors and consolidating its hegemony in the market for platforms that aenable users to share content with their family and friends. The FTC is trying to have these acquisitions overturned, over ten years after they were completed.

Meta filed a motion to dismiss after the FTC presented its evidence. If Judge James Boasberg grants the motion, the case could be dismissed without waiting for the trial to end. However, the judge could choose to wait for the closing arguments, which are scheduled to take place after Meta has finished presenting its defense, likely by June.

The regulatory authority is notably relying on internal exchanges in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed concern about the rise of Instagram and WhatsApp. However, Meta points out that the evidence presented shows that WhatsApp had no ambition to become a social network at the time of the acquisition, a fact that Zuckerberg was aware of, and that the acquisition of Instagram, on the contrary, promoted its growth.

Meta also criticizes the FTC for defining the social media market too narrowly by limiting it to platforms designed for sharing between friends and family, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat (Snap Inc.), and excluding TikTok. According to Meta, TikTok is a direct competitor, whose model has forced the group to adapt.

Meanwhile, the FTC considers that platforms such as TikTok, YouTube (Alphabet), Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter), where content is widely distributed to strangers, are not interchangeable with networks focused on personal social circles.

"What connects all these social apps is that they seek to capture as much of users' time and attention as possible through user-generated content, to the detriment of other apps, including Meta's," the group argued.

If Judge Boasberg rejects Meta's request, both parties will file final briefs and present their closing arguments. If Meta is found guilty of an illegal monopoly, a second phase of the trial will begin to determine corrective measures, potentially including a partial breakup.

Nicolas Thomas