Meta antitrust test can force Zuckerberg to sell Instagram

An antitrust case test against giant meta Meta started in Washington on Monday.

The American competition and the consumer guard claims that Meta, who already owns Facebook, bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate competition by effectively giving himself a monopoly.

FTC reviews and approves these acquisitions, but is committed to monitoring the results. If the Federal Trade Committee (FTC) wins the case, it may force Meta Executive Director Mark Zuckerberg to sell both Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta said he was sure he would win, and experts told the BBC that it was likely to claim that Instagram users had a better experience as it was conquered.

“The argument (FTC) is the acquisition of Instagram was a way of neutralizing this growing competitive threat to Facebook,” says Rebecca How Aransworth, a professor of antitrust at the Vanderbilt Legal School.

G -Ja Aransworth says that the words of G -n Zuckerberg, including those of his emails, can offer the most convincing evidence in the process.

“He said it was better to buy than to compete. It’s hard to get more bucket than it,” says Gia Aransworth.

Meta, on the other hand, will probably claim that the intention is not particularly important in the antitrust case.

“They will say that the real question is: Are consumers better as a result of this merger?” She said. “They will present a lot of evidence that Instagram has become what it is today because it takes advantage of being owned by Facebook.”

It is expected that the company Sheril Sandberg is expected to testify in the process that can last for several weeks.

The case, the FTC V Meta, was taken during the first administration of US President Donald Trump, but is at risk of politicized during his second term.

D -n Zuckerberg lobbies personally Trump so that FTC can drop the case, According to The Wall Street JournalS

Asked by the BBC to confirm this report, Meta argued the question, but in a statement said, “FTC’s court cases against Meta refute reality.”

“More than 10 years after the FTC reviews and cleared our acquisitions, the commission’s action in this case sends the announcement that no deal is ever really final,” a Meta spokesman told the BBC.

Relationships between G -n Zuckerberg and Trump were frosty Partly because Trump was banned from Meta social media platforms after a US Capital rebellion in January 2021.

Since then, the relationship has thawed somewhat.

Meta contribute $ 1 million (£ 764,400) to Trump’s introductory fund and in January declared Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief Dana White, a close ally of Trump, will join his board of directors.

The company too declared In January, this diverged with an independent check of facts.

President Trump’s relocation to fire two FTC commissioners in March also exceeds the case.

Like Democrats, Rebecca Kelly Glane and Alvaro Bedoya were in the minority in the committee for five places.

By Wednesday, only two seats were filled from these places, both from the Republicans. Another Republican was confirmed From the Senate on Thursday.

The slaughter and Bedoya – who are suing the Trump administration to be restored – they say that the move to push them was intended to intimidate.

“The president sent a very clear signal not only to us, but also to the President Ferguson and the Commissioner (Melissa) Holioac, that if they do something he does not like, he can also fire them at the BBC in a recent interview.

“So if they do not want to do a favor for his political allies, they are also in the cutting block,” Glane said.

The slaughter and Bedoya have expressed concern in the latest reports of Zuckerberg’s lobbying efforts.

“I hope there is no political interference,” G -n Bedoya told the BBC.

FTC did not answer a request for a comment from BBC.

Ferguson, who was appointed chairman of FTC by Trump, recently to say The relationship he “will obey the legitimate orders” when asked what he would do if the president directed him to file a case like the one against Meta.

Ferguson added that he would be very surprised if something like this ever happened.

FTC is considered a key antitrust guard. In recent years, it has returned hundreds of millions of dollars to victims of fraud, in addition to the adoption of laws that prohibit junk fees and subscription traps.

But as the metal test begins, it is among the many independent regulatory agencies that the administration seems to be willing to take advantage.

President Ferguson is also recently quoted Confirming his belief that the independent regulatory authorities are “not good for democracy.”

FTC V Meta begins as another major antitrust case – USA V Google – enters what is known as the drug phase.

The Ministry of Justice won the first phase of this case last summer, when Judge Amit Mehta found that Google had a monopoly in online search, with a market share of about 90%.

Last month, doj repeated A request during the Biden administration that the court violates the Google monopoly for search.

The FTC case against Meta will be more difficult to prove, says Laura Phillips-Soyer, Assistant Professor of Business Law at Georgia University.

“I think they have a real difficult battle,” Mrs. Phillips-Soeer said to FTC.

“They have a long way before you take into account any view of the Instagram or WhatsApp nebulia.”

This is because there is more competition in online demand in the space of personal network services in which Meta works, said Mrs. Phillips-Soeer.

Meta in a statement says that evidence in the process “will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese property Tiktok, YouTube, X, Imessage and more.”