Meta’s billionaire founder defended the Facebook parent company from allegations of being a monopoly.
Meta Platforms Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify on Monday at a Washington, D.C. courthouse to defend his company from allegations that it has illegally operated as a monopoly. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and several other tech brands, is facing a Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit with far-reaching implications for the technology landscape. Big Tech has been a frequent target of both Republicans and Democrats alike in recent years, and the Meta suit could be the first of many under the Trump-controlled FTC.
In its official complaint, the FTC accuses Meta of “anticompetitive conduct” and criticized the company’s 2012 acquisition of social media startup Instagram as being aimed at stifling market competition. Zuckerberg acknowledged at the time that his purchase of Instagram was spurred by realization of Instagram’s superior camera technology, which FTC attorneys used as evidence of Zuckerberg and Meta’s “buy and bury” approach to mergers and acquisitions. Government attorneys presented Zuckerberg with an email exchange he had with then-Meta CFO David Ebersman regarding purchasing Instagram, which some experts have deemed “smoking gun” evidence.
“One way of looking at it is that what we’re really buying is time,” Zuckerberg allegedly said via email to Ebersman. He also reportedly wrote that “even if some new competitor springs up… those new products won’t get much traction.” Zuckerberg defended the email exchange, and sparred with lead FTC attorney Daniel Matheson several times during the hearing.
Matheson accused Facebook of taking few steps to innovate or improve Instagram after its acquisition, something that Zuckerberg has disputed. Matheson further claimed that Facebook was in the process of developing its own camera app technology for the platform that was phased out after the purchase of Instagram, something that Zuckerberg acknowledged during his testimony. According to a document produced at the hearing by Matheson, the company had plans in 2018 to spin-off Instagram as a separate company in an effort to avoid any antitrust allegations. In the document, Zuckerberg allegedly admitted the potential of having to “spin off Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyways.”
While Zuckerberg has accused the case of being “at war with the facts and at war with the laws”, the document produced by Matheson could be used to prove Meta operated in an anticompetitive nature, according to the FTC. The lawsuit, which was initially filed during President Trump’s first administration more than 7 years ago, is the most recent of its kind, with AT&T, Google’s parent Alphabet, and Microsoft all having faced antitrust suits in recent years.
The trial that officially began on Monday, could last for several weeks and is overseen by the U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, and will feature a wide range of witness testimony, including from Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. The consequences for Meta could include a forced breakup and divestment from Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as massive fines.
