What we discovered from the FTC v. Meta antitrust trial (thus far)

Years after the Federal Commerce Fee sued Meta in a bid to halt acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, the trial that may form its future is lastly underway. The trial kicked off final month when CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand, and it’s anticipated to final a number of weeks.

Fb’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram is a central a part of the FTC’s case against Meta. The federal government says Zuckerberg purchased Instagram to neutralize it as a competitor. When Instagram’s cofounder and former CEO Kevin Systrom took the stand, he didn’t precisely defend the transfer. Whereas Zuckerberg had testified Meta had helped Instagram develop, Systrom testified Zuckerberg noticed Instagram as a “menace” to Fb’s development and deliberately withheld firm assets.

Additional nonetheless, Fb’s choice to pay $1 billion for Instagram — an app with no income and only a handful of staff — appeared like an unimaginable sum. Sheryl Sandberg thought Zuckerberg had overpaid for Instagram. In an alternate between the 2 from 2012, she stated, “Sure, after all it’s method an excessive amount of.”

There are extra nuggets, too. Like how Meta sees TikTok as an earnest menace, how Europeans aren’t shopping for the ad-free subscriptions (duh), and why Zuckerberg considered nuking customers’ buddy lists yearly to spice up engagement. Learn Karissa Bell’s full breakdown of the FTC v. Meta antitrust trial thus far.

— Mat Smith

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