In the anti -monopoly case against Meta, the US Federal Trade Committee asks the judge to consider an alternative fact. In this world, the company did not buy Instagram and WhatsApp. The two applications were able to compete with Facebook, as they developed the features that compete for the interest of users. This competition has created a prosperous environmental system for social media applications where people can communicate with their friends and family.
Meta spent the past few days-during which she began to present her case in one of Washington, DC, the court-the criminal building. In the narration of this alternative present, Instagram and WhatsApp are shadows of what they are in our world. They lacked resources, experience and vision to become strong and online platforms, not to mention the enormous competitors. It is the consumers who finally suffered.
One of the main Meta witnesses of this defense is WhatsApp Brian Acton, who was called on Tuesday to help present his case, which benefited from WhatsApp users, just like Instagram, from the Meta acquisition. Acton was the founder of the second application to witness in the case, after that Instagram Kevin Systrom founder often a certificate Against the company a few weeks ago. Acton’s time came on the platform less severe, although both Meta and FTC have recorded some major points.
Acton was an amazing witness to Meta to call, given his prominent departure from the company in 2017. The founder left $ 800 million in restricted stock units that are not invested on the table after he referred to the heads of the presidents with senior executives to put ads in WhatsApp (when the FTC lawyer will indicate that the stock will be worth $ 4 today, “after taxes). He publicly called on people to delete Facebook In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Acton reaffirmed that he had no interest at all to build nutrition in WhatsApp
But Acton supported some important allegations by Meta throughout the trial. Meta has repeatedly argued that WhatsApp was unlikely to compete with Facebook in the social media space, so it was not just an attempt to get a possible competitor. Acton reaffirmed that he and the founder of Jan Koum had no interest at all to build social advantages such as WHATSAPP, or change the company to an advertising-backed company-even if before the pre-acquisition investors wished to do so. While FTC argued that WhatsApp could have succeeded on its own or with another mother, Acton said that Koum rejected other offers, and they felt that Meta’s infrastructure helped to overcome a great work that he had to do otherwise.
On the interrogation, however, FTC got some important acceptance from Acton. The use of Meta’s infrastructure may have helped her overcome some steps, but Acton witnessed that WhatsApp did not actually migrate to Meta Data Centers to ward off power outage – WhatsApp was very able to find technical support for the application already. Instead, he said he and Koum wanted to make sure that Meta would continue to run the application even after they left.
Away from being a nude messaging application without the help of Meta, Acton has witnessed that WhatsApp has already added many features before acquisition such as group correspondence, correspondence and voice correspondence, and the site’s participation-with plans to add more. WhatsApp was already growing incredible speed before the acquisition, as the volume doubled every 12 to 18 months – this growth rate remained very fixed even after it bought it Meta. Acton was confident that even without meta, WhatsApp had grown more than 400 million active users active before the deal to about one billion months. This certificate from Systrom has repeated that Instagram is likely to be successful without selling.
The CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg earlier in the trial witnessed that he was surprised by the little interest that WhatsApp founders had to build something greater than the “lifestyle company”. However, Acton reaffirmed his contempt for a form backed by advertisements that could pump revenues, he admitted that he agreed to sell to dead without securing a fixed commitment against the publication of ads, and understood that the Meta offer price was partially based on plans to do so. This seems to support the idea that the founders could have been open to the liquefaction of their products more than they allowed – which may grow in a competitor with dead.
What was the WhatsApp is a better product – a booming product in more markets with stronger privacy protection – without the supervision of Meta, suggested FTC. In an email in November 2014, he indicated that the WhatsApp employee told Acton and Koum that the executives of its new owner had a “some reservation” about promoting the application in countries where Facebook Messenger was already a pioneer. Meta succeeded in pressing WhatsApp to change the privacy policy and conditions of service in 2016 so that Facebook can take advantage of user data for the ADS product (unless WhatsApp users). She pushed a work version of the application, which Acton said was “against him strongly”, for fear that WhatsApp will be reduced from run to tip. After leaving Acton, the product was launched.
