Zuckerberg could be saying goodbye to Instagram and WhatsApp
The biggest celebrity break-up of 2025? Mark Zuckerberg and Meta.
One thing no one had on their 2025 bingo card? Mark Zuckerberg losing his social media empire.
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A major antitrust trial began on Monday, April 14, in Washington and has the potential to shake up the entire tech world.
According to the BBC, "Lawyers for the US competition and consumer watchdog allege Meta unlawfully quashed rivals by purchasing Instagram and WhatsApp over a decade ago."
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) argues that Meta didn't want to compete fairly, so it took the easier route of just buying the competition.
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“They decided that competition was too hard,” said FTC lawyer Daniel Matheson, pointing to internal memos from Zuckerberg himself that suggest Meta’s goal was to “neutralise” Instagram before it became a real threat.
One 2012 email sent by Zuckerberg seems to prove the FTC's point quite clearly: "Better to buy than to compete."
Meta is not giving up without a fight, and their legal team says the acquisitions were not about destroying the rivals, but that it "acquired Instagram and WhatsApp to improve and grow them alongside Facebook".
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Since the start of the trial, Zuckerberg has testified.
Matheson showed Zuckerberg's emails from 2012 in which Facebook's former chief financial officer listed possible reasons for buying start-ups like Instagram, including "neutralizing a competitor".
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Zuckerberg sidestepped commenting on the role of competitive pressure, instead playing up the ability of Facebook to improve features, user numbers and revenue.
Instagram integration ended up going very well; we were able to add way more value to Instagram than we would have expected. After that, we basically felt more confident that we could identify other social apps, potentially acquire them and grow them faster (than they would have on their own).
This is a very serious case, and if the FTC wins, it could be detrimental to Meta's future, forcing it to separate from Instagram and WhatsApp.
It could also change the way Big Tech does business.
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Main image courtesy of AFP