WASHINGTON – A federal judge dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust lawsuit against meta (formerly Facebook) Tuesday, ruling the company does not need to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp. The decision marks a significant victory for Meta,which has faced years of legal challenges alleging it illegally maintained a monopoly in the social networking market.
The FTC filed the lawsuit in 2020, arguing Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 stifled competition. Regulators asserted Meta would not be as powerful today had it not purchased the two platforms to eliminate competitive threats. Both acquisitions were previously approved by the FTC.
During the trial, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified emphasizing TikTok as a “fierce rival,” and highlighted Instagram’s “Reels” feature as a direct response to TikTok’s popularity. More than half of Americans now use TikTok.
“While there are loud bipartisan cries in Washington to rein in the power of Big Tech, actually doing so remains quite hard,” NPR’s Bobby Allyn reported. Legal experts suggest the government will face an ”uphill battle” in reassessing the previously approved acquisitions.
The dismissal doesn’t end the broader legal scrutiny of Big Tech. Cases against Apple and Amazon are still pending, and Google recently lost two antitrust cases to the Department of Justice.
Despite attempts by Silicon Valley executives to appease the Trump administration through policy changes and praise, those efforts did not result in the dismissal of these lawsuits. The Trump administration, and subsequently the Biden administration, allowed the cases to proceed through the courts. The White House may leverage these suits in negotiations wiht tech companies, given their potential cost and disruption.
