The fate of the digital behemoth Meta hangs in the balance as the Federal Trade Commission takes on Meta in an antitrust trial on Monday, following a nearly six-year investigation and legal struggle.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire would be dismantled if the FTC is able to persuade U.S. District Judge James Boasberg (yes, same Boasberg) that Meta locked in an illegal social media monopoly through its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.
That would be a monumental challenge to the unchecked power of corporations, as it would involve dismantling a $1.4 trillion firm, an undertaking not undertaken on this size since the dissolution of the AT&T telephone monopoly forty years ago.
However, the entire investigation began before Zuckerberg had established a cordial rapport with Trump.
Just earlier this month, Andrew Ferguson—who Trump recently appointed to head the FTC—said that his attorneys are “raring to go” against Meta. Still, more and more people are worried that the president may side with the social media behemoth. Earlier this month, Zuckerberg allegedly met with Trump in the Oval Office to request a settlement in the antitrust lawsuit before to trial.
This case has origins in both the Trump and Biden administrations; it was filed under Trump’s first administration, then moved forward vigorously by Biden’s antitrust enforcers, and is now being tried under Ferguson’s direction.
Over the last five years, it has had incredible highs and lows; for example, Boasberg rejected the FTC’s initial case, so the agency had to rework its arguments before it could proceed. Meta sought summary judgment in April 2024, but was denied by Boasberg in November. A trial date was then scheduled for April 2025.
Christopher Sgro, a representative for Meta, issued a statement late last week in which he claimed that the FTC’s case “defies reality” and that Meta faces stiff competition in the social media industry.
Sgro stated, “What every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others.” The evidence at trial will further support this claim. “The Commission’s decision in this lawsuit sends the message that no agreement is ever truly final,” the statement said, “more than 10 years after the FTC evaluated and cleared our purchases.”
“The FTC should be supporting American innovation, not trying to dismantle a great American company and give China an advantage on important issues like AI,” Sgro continued.
The trial for the Meta monopoly will continue throughout the summer, maybe into July. In the beginning, we will be watching for these three things:
Is Boasberg going to believe the FTC’s case?
Since there will be no jury in this bench trial, the fate of the case rests on Boasberg, who was nominated to the DC District Court by Obama in 2011. Trump has called for his impeachment as he finds himself in an extraordinary conflict with the Trump administration over their attempt to deport Venezuelan immigrants to a jail in El Salvador.
Boasberg has learned the arguments on both sides by now. In addition, he has consistently given the impression that he does not believe the government’s assertion that Meta’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 constitute unlawful efforts to establish a social media monopoly.
In his 2021 decision to dismiss the FTC’s first complaint, Boasberg highlighted the agency’s “inability to offer any indication of the metric(s) or method(s) it used to calculate Facebook’s market share.” The FTC “may well face a tall task down the road in proving its allegations,” he noted even as he approved the agency’s revised petition in January 2022.
With remarks like “the FTC faces hard questions about whether its claims can hold up in the crucible of trial” and “its positions at times strain this country’s creaking antitrust precedents to their limits,” the judge sounded even more suspicious in November.
Given TikTok’s meteoric ascent, it’s arguable that the social media industry is more cutthroat now than it was when Meta bought Instagram and WhatsApp. Regardless of the market situation, the FTC will most certainly look into allegations that Zuckerberg purchased Instagram and WhatsApp with the intention of stifling competition. It’s likely that there will be a lot of debate about those issues, and Boasberg may even give away his bias early on.
Could you please tell me which tech titans have agreed to testify?
It is unusual for CEOs to face public scrutiny over their company operations unless there is a major instance like this. On Monday, the courtroom will hear testimony from a diverse group of IT leaders in the Meta case. However, it is still unclear who exactly will be there.
There will likely be an appearance by Zuckerberg (who recently purchased a Washington estate), Sheryl Sandberg (former COO of Meta), and a slew of other executives (some of whom worked for Instagram and WhatsApp), among others. There will likely be testimony from top executives at competing platforms as well, such as TikTok, Snap, and Pinterest.
Does Trump’s interference complicate matters?
Antitrust watchers in Washington are worried that Trump may step in at some point, probably to help Meta, in the case that starts on Monday. The president’s presence is particularly big in this context.
Since the FTC has always functioned apart from the White House, that is normally not feasible. Trump now has unprecedented authority over the FTC as a result of his action last month to dismiss the Democratic commissioners and Ferguson’s assertion that he would obey the president’s commands.
Despite their history of animosity, Meta’s CEO has lately begun a strong push to win over the incoming president and the Republican Party. Trump may eventually bail out Zuckerberg if these actions—which involve reworking Meta’s content regulations and promoting lifelong Republicans to important positions within the company—come to fruition.
The president may still step in later on, even if he lets the trial go on. In the event that the FTC prevails at trial, he may instruct Ferguson to be kind with Meta, which may save the business from collapsing even if Meta loses.