Meta’s antitrust trial could force Zuckerberg to sell Instagram

A trial in the Langurest case is launched against the social media giant in Washington on Monday.

The American competition and consumer consumer claim that Meta, which had already owned Facebook, bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate the competition, which actually gives itself a monopoly.

I reviewed FTC and adopted these acquisitions but is committed to monitoring the results. If the Federal Trade Committee (FTC) won the case, it may force the CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta previously said he will surely win and tell the BBC experts to argue that Instagram users have better experience since his assumption.

“the [FTC’s] The argument is the acquisition of Instagram was a way to neutralize this growing competitive threat on Facebook.

Ms. Alinsworth says that Mr. Zuckerberg’s special words, including those in his emails, may provide the most persuaded evidence in the trial.

“It is better to buy from competition. It is difficult to become more literal than that,” says Ms. Alinsworth.

On the other hand, Meta is likely to argue that the intention is not particularly relevant in the anti -monopoly issue.

She said, “They will say that the real question is: Are consumers better as a result of this integration?” “They will provide a lot of evidence that Instagram is what it is today because it has benefited from being owned by Facebook.”

Mr. Zuckerberg and CEO of the former operations of the company Sherrill Sandberg will witness the trial, which can last for several weeks.

The case was presented, FTC V Meta, during the first administration of US President Donald Trump, but the risks that become politicized during his second term.

Mr. Zuckerberg pressed Trump personally to drop FTC in the case, According to the Wall Street Journal.

When I asked the British Broadcasting Corporation to confirm this report, Meta avoided this question, but he said in a statement: “It challenges FTC claims against Meta reality.”

“After more than 10 years have passed since the FTC review and surveying our acquisitions, the committee’s conduct in this case sends a message that there is no truly final deal,” a Meta spokesman told the BBC.

The relations between Mr. Zuckerberg and Trump were Lukewarm Partially because Trump was prevented from social media platforms in Meta after the American Capitol riot in January 2021.

Since then, the relationship has melted somewhat.

Dead Contribute One million dollars (764,400 pounds) for the Trump opening fund, and in January Declare Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a close Trump ally, will join her board of directors.

The company also Declare In January, she was getting rid of independent facts.

President Trump moved to shoot the FTC Commissioners in March also commenting on the case.

As Democrats, Rebecca Kelly Slier and Alvaru was in a paid in a minority in the five seats committee.

Until Wednesday, only two seats were occupied by these seats, both by Republicans. It was another fans certain By the Senate on Thursday.

The massacre and Bedoya – who sue the Trump administration to return – says that the step to push them abroad was aimed at intimidating.

“The president sent a very clear signal not only to us, but to the Chairman of the Board of Directors Ferguson and the Commissioner [Melissa] “They did something they don’t like,” said BBC.

“If they do not want to provide a well -known political allies, they are also on the bloc of cutting,” Siloter said.

Slaughter and Bedoya expressed his warning in recent reports on pressure efforts in Zuckerberg.

“My hope is that there is no political intervention,” Mr. Bedoya told the BBC.

FTC did not respond to the BBC comment.

Ferguson, who was appointed as Chairman of the Federal Trade Committee by Trump, recently He said It is about to “obey legal orders” when he was asked what he would do if the president orders him to drop a lawsuit like a vulnerable against Mita.

Ferguson added that he would be very surprised if anything like that happened.

FTC is the main monopoly control control body. In recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars have returned to fraud victims, as well as laws that prohibit unwanted fees and subscription traps.

But with the start of the Meta experience, among many independent organizational agencies that the administration seems keen to restrain it.

Ferguson’s chair recently Quoted Re -confirm his belief that independent organizational bodies are “not good for democracy.”

FTC V Meta begins as another case to combat monopoly – USA against Google – entering the name of the treatment stage.

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

Last month, the Ministry of Justice repeat A request to be submitted during the Biden administration that the Joogle Monopher Court.

Laura Phillips Surir, a professor participating in the Business Law at the University of Georgia, says the FTC case against Meta will be more striking to prove it.

“I think they have a real arduous battle,” Mrs. Philips Sayer said of FTC.

“They have a long way before looking at Instagram or WhatsApp.”

This is because of the online search, there is more competition in the field of personal network services in which Meta works, Ms. Philips Sayer said.

Mita said in a statement that the evidence in the trial “will show what every 17 -year -old child knows in the world: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese -owned Tiktok, YouTube, X, IMessage and many more.”