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Technology|Meta’s Fate Now Rests With a Judge
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/technology/meta-antitrust-trial-concludes.html
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A landmark antitrust trial accusing the social media giant of cementing its dominance through acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp has concluded.
By Cecilia Kang
Reporting from the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington
May 27, 2025, 3:49 p.m. ET
A trial representing the most consequential challenge to Meta’s power online concluded on Tuesday, putting the future of the social networking giant into the hands of a federal judge.
The case — Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms — wrapped up after six weeks of testimony from 38 witnesses at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They included Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who was grilled by government lawyers accusing him of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp in a “buy or bury” strategy to cement his company’s social networking monopoly.
Meta defended itself by saying that it faces plenty of competition from rivals, including TikTok and YouTube, and that it benefited the nascent apps with bountiful resources.
Now, both sides will have the chance to file follow-up briefings this summer. Judge James E. Boasberg, who is presiding over the case, said he would work “expeditiously” to issue an opinion on whether Meta broke the law. He is not expected to hold closing arguments.
Judge Boasberg will consider the government’s accusation that Meta, which was known as Facebook at the time, overpaid when it bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion to kill off its competitors. The government has argued that Meta violated Section 2 of the 135-year-old Sherman Antitrust Act, a federal law that prohibits the monopolization of an industry through anticompetitive practices.
The judge’s decision has the potential to reshape Meta’s powerful social networking business, which has helped define the social media landscape since Mr. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004. The F.T.C. has pre-emptively asked the judge to force Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, and if successful that request could fundamentally alter the power dynamics in Silicon Valley.
