Will Zuckerberg lose Instagram and WhatsApp?

The Federal Commission for Trade (FTC) in a lawsuit against Meta claims that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has violated the competition law by her aquers of Instagram and Whatsappa. The purchases made in 2012 and 2014 were, according to FTC, part of the « buy or burial » strategy, which wanted to eliminate the competition and consolidate its monopoly position in the social networking market.

In the FTC lawsuit, he states that Meta with these acquisitions has hampered competitiveness in the market and thus gained an unfair advantage. Meta, after buying Instagram for one billion dollars and WhatsApp for $ 19 billion, prevented the development of potential competitors that could threaten its dominant position. In its court documents, FTC states that Meta has maintained its monopoly position and achieved huge economic profits that would not be able to be in a competitive environment.

Meta’s defense led by a lawyer Mark Hansenclaims that FTC allegations are unfounded, as Meta is not a monopolist because he faces strong competition of other platforms such as Tiktok and YouTube. According to him, Instagram and whatsappa were legal and did not violate any competitive laws. Hansen labeled the FTC lawsuit wrongly and stressed that the commission’s claims were contrary to the facts and the law.

If FTC succeeds, Meta could be forced to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, which would significantly affect her business and market position, writes Businessinsider. In court proceedings, which is expected to take up to eight weeks, the judge will decide James Boasbergbut the jury is not planned.

Controversial ideas from 2022 also came to the fore, when Mark Zuckerberg allegedly wanted to clean all friends Facebook. In internal communication with Facebook manager Tom Alison Zuckerberg expressed concern that Facebook is losing cultural significance, suggesting to delete users all friendly links and force them to start again. Alison responded with skepticism on the proposal, doubting the feasibility of this plan given the importance of friendly Instagram links.

Zuckerberg admitted in court that Facebook never realized these ideas. During his testimony, he stressed that Facebook experienced extensive evolution more than 20 years ago. Connecting with friends is no longer the central goal of the platform, as Facebook has transformed into a place for broader discovery of society and entertainment.