"Last week, Meta declared courtroom victory over the FTC after a US judge ruled the company didn't illegally stifle competition through its multi-billion-dollar acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp way back when. Why? According to the judge, the FTC had too narrow a definition of the market in which Meta competes and the rise of platforms such as TikTok (albeit quite a few years later) proves the company still has rivals."
"That, the agency said, makes its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions objectionable. While the FTC's argument may have held more water back in late 2020, when it filed the lawsuit amid the final days of Trump 1.0, US District Judge James Boasberg essentially argued the point is moot in a 2025 landscape in which Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube "evolved to have nearly identical" features."
US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that Meta did not illegally stifle competition through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, citing an overly narrow market definition and the rise of other platforms. The FTC had defined the market as personal social networking limited to Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and MeWe. The judge found that by 2025 Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube had evolved to share nearly identical features, undermining the agency's claim. The outcome parallels a lighter remedy in Google's antitrust case because AI chatbots and shifting user behavior changed competitive dynamics. Venture capitalists expect renewed acquisition activity by major tech firms.
Read at The Daily Upside
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