Behind the historic trial which could reshape the future of Meta with Instagram

Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, returned to Washington this week, testifying in a historic trial that could force the world’s largest social network to break up Instagram and Whatsapp.

The result of the case with high challenges between Meta and the Federal Trade Commission could relax some of the most lucrative acquisitions of the company, disturbing its announcement business and reshaping the future of social media.

The highly watched antitrust test also occurs while Zuckerberg and other technology leaders are trying to cook the favor of the Trump administration.

“This case could go in both directions,” said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor at the Vanderbilt Law School who studies antitrust law. “There are certain forces of the case of government, and there is also a great weakness that we can expect that Meta really exploit.”

Meta says that it faces competition from applications such as Tiktok and YouTube, but the FTC says that video applications are different from personal social networking services.

Meta and the FTC did not respond to a request for comments. More than 3 billion people use one of Meta’s applications daily, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Here is what you need to know about the legal test:

What is the antitrust case of the FTC against Meta?

The FTC alleys that Meta has maintained the monopoly power in personal social networking services in the United States by illegally acquiring its competitors, including Instagram and the WhatsApp messaging application.

The strategy “better to buy than competition” has removed innovation and has also harmed consumers and advertisers because they have less choice, said the agency in 2021 Modified complaint Against Facebook, who then renamed Meta.

The FTC and the meta clashed on how the government defines the relevant market. The agency says that personal social networking services include applications such as Snapchat and Mewe but not Tiktok, YouTube or Twitter, now X. It is because people do not download applications like Tiktok to stay connected with family and friends, but to publish content for users, they do not know.

However, the case will be difficult for the FTC to win, said Jendle Huddleston, a principal researcher for technological policy at the Cato Institute libertarian reflection group.

“He tries to show that Facebook has a monopoly power and what he defines as personal social networks, but that does not really correspond to what consumers live when they look at social media,” she said.

What is Meta’s response?

Meta called the FTC case against “weak” society and said that it “ignores reality”.

The social network declared in a blog article that the company competes with applications such as YouTube and Tiktok.

While allowing people to connect with family and friends is an absolute priority for Meta, Zuckerberg told the courtroom that “we have always been a service that allows you to discover and learn what’s going on in the world,” said Bloomberg.

The company also said that its investments of several billion dollars in Instagram and Whatsapp helped their popularity. If Meta is forced to give in Instagram and WhatsApp, the government would send the message to companies that “no agreement is never final”.

What’s at stake for Meta?

Forcing Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp would be a blow for your business, according to analysts.

“Instagram is really its biggest growth engine, in the sense that it has taken over from Facebook for a long time, especially on the user front regarding young people,” said Jasmine Enberg, vice-president and main analyst at Emarketer who covers social media. “Facebook has not been where cool college students have been dragging for a long time.”

According to Emarketer, US Instagram advertising revenues are expected to reach $ 37.67 billion, representing about half of Meta’s total advertising revenues, according to Emarketer. Although WhatsApp is a smaller part of Meta income, companies also use messaging application to stimulate sales and customer support.

The two applications have a massive audience. Instagram has more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. WhatsApp also has more than 2 billion users worldwide, raising people not only in the United States, but in developing countries.

Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for around $ 1 billion. The social network then bought WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in 2014.

How will it affect the social media landscape?

Some analysts say that Meta’s rupture could open the door to more competitors.

“We would probably see a renaissance of social media startups that seek to grasp a new world order on social networks,” said Mike Proulx, vice-president and research director at Forrester, a research and consulting company based in Massachusetts, in a press release.

Others have noted that bringing people to move to another social media application is a difficult battle.

“It’s a huge question mark,” said Enberg. “The reality is that starting or launching a social application is not easy, then making it stick is even more difficult.”

Isn’t that the already seen for Zuckerberg?

Yes. Zuckerberg has become face to face with FTC and legislators in the past. In 2022, Zuckerberg testified in a case In which the FTC tried to block the purchase of Meta de Los Angeles in Unlimited, the company which created VR Fitness App Supernatural. A California judge ranked on the side of the meta in 2023, allowing the social media society to conclude the agreement.

Zuckerberg also testified in an intellectual property test in 2017 which accused Oculus, which Facebook bought, theft of technology from Zenimax Media to create its virtual reality headsets. A jury initially ordered Facebook to pay $ 500 million in Zenimax, but the company called and the trial was finally settled.

The 40 -year -old technology tycoon also appeared before the congress, faced with the questions of the legislators on data confidentiality and child security problems.

Will Zuckerberg attempts comfort Trump help Meta?

The FTC antitrust case began during President Trump’s first term. In 2020, the agency continued Facebook. A federal court rejected the case after having ruled that the agency did not provide enough facts to prove that Facebook organized a monopoly on personal social networks. During the Biden administration in 2021, the FTC filed a modified complaint.

Zuckerberg, who had previously criticized Trump in his first mandate, tried to repair his relationship with the president.

“It is clear that Zuckerberg is trying to take the trouble of his sentence, but so far, that does not seem to have worked, because this affair goes ahead,” said Allensworth.

What is the next step?

US district judge James Boasberg chairs the case and the trial is expected to last for several weeks.

During the trial, the FTC lawyers sent emails that Zuckerberg sent colleagues years ago, one of which of 2018 in which the executive mentions that there is a “non-trivial chance” that the company could be forced to transform Instagram and WhatsApp while calls for breaking the large technological companies develop. The technology magnate finished its testimony on Wednesday.

Sheryl Sandberg, the former META operations chief, also took a position this week, faced with questions about how people use Facebook and the purchase of Instagram by the company.

More meta-framework and other witnesses will probably be called upon to testify in the trial.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.