Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson previewed the introduction of the agency’s antitrust case against Meta and gave details of the Deragulatory agenda of the Trump administration.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg The Federal Court on Monday introduced to testify the first day of a historic antitrust case against its company – one who illegally accuses Zuckerberg and other senior leadership to buy small apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp, which to create social media monopoly.
Lawyers of the Federal Trade Commission said that in the comments commented on Monday, they would try to prove the Meta during the weeks-long hearing. Purchased Instagram And WhatsApp was used to compete and smell options as part of a so -called “buy or acquit” strategy, especially from apps it is considered a threat to their platform.
FTC lawyer Daniel Matheson said on Monday, “He decided that the competition was very difficult, and would be easy to buy his rivals rather than competing with them.”
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E. Barrett Pritiman US Court House is seen as the US Court of Appeals at Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
For more than a decade, he argued, this strategy allowed the meta to buy its competition for much above the market price-established the so-called “entry barriers” to protect their social media dominance.
Matheson and FTCs are accusing Mata of employing a strategy to get a monopoly on the so -called “personal social networking” market.
If successful, the FTC will probably look for the court to order a meta for the restructuring of his company, or to divide it from acquired companies including Instagram and WhatsApp.
The victory will be a notable win for the federal government when it has become strong in the challenges of the court to include the silicon Valley and its complex network, which seems to be in the night, in major companies, in major companies.
Meta is now priced at $ 1.4 trillion. If FTC lawyers are strong in their no -confidence cases against Mata, it will be the largest disintegration of the American company since the AT&T breakup in the early 1980s.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms Inc., Chief Executive Officer of the Center, on Monday, January 20, 2025, Washington, DC, come to Rotunda, US Capital at Rotunda in US, for the inauguration. (Sean Thew/EPA/Bloomberg Getty Image/Getty Image)
Despite the long tail of the trial, which is expected to play in the federal court through early summer, FTC lawyers on Monday ruined their first witness, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Zuckerberg on Monday.
There, Zuckerberg was grilled on emails sent about the purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
In the 2012 email, Zuckerberg said that Instagram saw such a rapid growth that his own company had “bought” it to buy it, telling Matheson.
Mathason said, “This is an email written by someone who recognized Instagram as a threat and was forced to sacrifice a billion dollar as the meta could not fulfill that danger through competition.”
He also faced questions about Facebook’s change, which was produced by FTC as a site, designed to facilitate the connection between colleagues, showing more third-party materials, including news and group activity.
Zuckerberg said in response, “Over time, the part of that ‘interest’ has made more than the part of ‘friend’.”
Zuckerberg stated that users are now “connected to much groups, and other types of things”.
He said, “Part of ‘friend’ has gone down significantly – but it is still something that we care,” he said.
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Jason Citron, Discord CEO, Ivan Speigel, Snap’s CEO, Shu Zee Chev, Tiktok CEO, Linda Yacarino, X KEO, and Mark Zuckerberg, as CEO of Meta they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2024. (Alex Wong / Getty Image / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Meta’s Attorney, Mark Hansen, in his initial remarks demanded dismissal of the case, “with the law” Grab bag of FTC principles “in war. ,
“The facts are going to prove that FTC’s principles are all wrong,” Hansen told us Judge James BoseburgPresiding Judge in the test.
Meta lawyers have sought to dispute the FTC details of the so-called “personal social networking” apps, and argued that their competitors’ pool is really huge-spreading to companies including Ticktok, LinkedIn and others.
During the hearing, Boseberg heard carefully and took notes, intervened to ask questions several times or to ask additional details.
The bench trial will be decided by a single judge – in this case, Judge Boseberg – and expected to last for about eight weeks.
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Later this week, the court is expected to hear from other former top officials in Meta, including former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, former Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth and others.
