The United States prepare to challenge the domain of the social media of Meta

Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg He co-founded Facebook in his Harvard dormitory room In 2004, social networks went up to the stars in popularity. About a decade later, the company recorded another round of explosive growth after purchasing its smaller rivals Instagram AND WhatsAppcementing his place in social media.

On Monday, Judge James Boasberg Of the District Court of the United States for the Columbia District, it will begin to consider a case of reference monopoly that involves the company-hour company called Meta-Che depends on a new legal issue: has it broken the law to remain dominant by acquiring the start-ups that have stopped?

The case – Federal Trade Commission against Meta Platform – For the first time he will try to lengthen the theories of the American antitrust law to include what regulators call a “purchase or bury” strategy. Meta has broken the law by acquiring nascent competitors to maintain its monopoly in the social network, supports the FTC. The regulators are trying to force Meta to yield Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta replied that he faces a wide competition in social media from Tiktok, Snap, Reddit and LinkedIn and that the regulators have approved the acquisitions at that moment. Even the company did not give up solving the case: at the beginning of this month, Mr. Zuckerberg was in the White House To try to convince the Trump administration To avoid test.

The result of what should be a multi -settiman process, the first important technological case pursued by the Trump Administration, could reshape the US antitrust landscape while companies have to face intense control on mergers and acquisitions. A government victory could also have chain effects for Silicon Valley, where Start-ups Bank on profitable acquisitions by larger companies for payments.

However, the FTC faces an uphill battle to demonstrate his case, the legal experts said. The legal topic of the government depends on showing that the goal would not be so dominant and would not remain dominant, if it had not acquired Instagram and WhatsApp – a hypothetical situation that is difficult to demonstrate because many factors have played in the growth of the company.

“This is a case of critical proof for if the antitrust laws can be used to carry out the mergers designed to eliminate the starting competition,” said Gene Kimmelman, a former high official of the antitrust division of the Department of Justice. “A victory for the government would give consumers more choices and opportunities to pass through social media platforms without having to be on Facebook.”

The cause has a bipartisan support and is part of the most aggressive effort of trusted by federal regulators from the golden age, with Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple who face questions about their power to control the ways in which consumers make purchases, find information and communicate.

The Department of Justice last year he won an antitrust cause against Google For the monopoization of internet research and a test to determine how to remedy that monopoly it is expected to start April 21. Google is also Pending a judge’s decision In a separate process on the statements that illegally crushed competition in the advertising technology market.

The Doj also sued Apple on complaints That his system strictly knitted with devices and software makes it demanding for consumers to leave. And the FTC has Amazon in courtaccusing him of illegally protecting a monopoly in online retail sale. These cases will be expected to be on test next year.

The technological industry is observing the Meta Trial closely, one of the first main signs of how President Trump in aggressive can curb the most powerful technological companies. The case originated under his first administration, before a delivery in 2021 on the FTC chair Lina Khan, A biden person who attracted attention to his research to break the technological monopolies.

Now Andrew Ferguson, The choice of Mr. Trump to drive the agency took the witness. He warned against concentrated power held by Meta. It is also motivated by a shared republican vision according to which technological platforms have censored content, in particular conservative items.

“We don’t intend to remove the foot from the gas,” said Ferguson in an interview Last month with Bloomberg.

By goal, the idea of ​​hitting Instagram and WhatsApp is also alarming. The company purchased Instagram for $ 1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in 2014. At the time of business, the apps were small: Instagram had only 30 million users and 13 employees, while WhatsApp had 450 million users and 50 employees. Since then, both have become fundamental for the destination, with faster growth and involvement by users than Facebook.

The process should present about seven hours of testimony of Mr. Zuckerberg, who will be a stellar witness, together with the former Operational Director of Meta, Sheryl Sandberg, and the founders of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta has an army of the most expensive and expert disputes that discuss his defense, led by Mark C. Hansen, partner of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel and Frederick. Meta plans to argue that the rapid increase in the Tiktok video sharing site, in particular, shows healthy competition on the market.

“We are confident that the trial will show that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were good for competition and consumers,” said Chris Sgro, spokesperson for Meta. “The Commission is erroneously continuing to affirm that no agreement is never really definitive and that companies can be punished to innovate.”

The FTC sued the destination in December 2020, together with a similar cause from 46 states. The legacy’s legal topic depends on section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which specifies that it is illegal to maintain a monopoly using unconventional practices – in this case, acquiring companies in an award as a strategy to eliminate them as competitors.

To support his case, the FTC plans to present an e -2008 email by Mr. Zuckerberg saying: “It is better to buy than compete” and a 2012 reminder that he wrote saying that his motivation for the purchase of Instagram was “neutral (Izing) a potential competitor”.

Judge Boasberg, who was blocked in a controversial judicial battle with the Trump administration for the use of a powerful statute in war time to summarize Venezuelan migrants summarily, will decide the case. During a recent preliminary tutorial, the judge said he had never had a personal Facebook or Instagram account.

Judge Boasberg rejected the initial case of the FTC in June 2021, stating that the agency had to provide stronger definitions for the social media market and how the destination had come to monopolize it. Accepted A version of the case in January 2022But he warned that it was far from a crushed.

In a sentence against the motion of destination to archive the case last year, judge Boasberg said that the FTC “faces intermediate difficulty on the fact that his statements can hold up in the crucible of the trial”.

“In fact, his positions sometimes strive the antitrust previous of this country to their limits,” he added.

Legal experts say that the case will be difficult to demonstrate because it depends on the determination of the intentions by managers more than a decade ago, during a very different internet era. The agreements were approved by the regulators at the time and years of integration between the apps mean that they share many of the same systems and internal data, making a demanding break.

“He is asking a judge to decide if Meta tried to kill the competition or he was lucky and made a good bet,” said Jennifer Huddleston, senior member of the Cato Institute, a Think Tank. “Suppose that a counterfactual we cannot know.”