Judge now deciding fate of Instagram and WhatsApp in Meta antitrust case

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, Y ... Read full article.