In another win for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its energetic chair Lina Khan, a federal judge has ruled that the lawsuit accusing Meta of holding an illegal monopoly over social media can proceed to trial.
There were setbacks. The FTC’s suit, launched in 2020, was initially dismissed after a federal court found that the agency couldn’t sufficiently show that Meta held a dominant position in the world of social networks.
The agency then refiled an amended version of the lawsuit, and its case improved. In 2022, US District Judge James Boasberg sided against Meta's motion to have the updated lawsuit dismissed and found that the FTC had offered “more robust and detailed” evidence this time around.
Finally, in April 2024, Meta attempted to avert a full trial by asking the court to issue a summary judgment. But on Wednesday, Boasberg rejected the maneuver, meaning that the tech giant will have to stand trial over the allegations.
“How times have changed. Not so long ago, a company called Facebook so dominated the provision of personal social-networking services that a movie charting its rise was entitled simply The Social Network,” the judge said in an opinion detailing his decision.
“Fifteen years later – and four years into the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust suit against it – that company (now called Meta) argues that the market with which it was once nearly synonymous does not even exist.”
The lawsuit seeks to break up Meta which is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads – all social media platforms. It is specifically looking into the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said in a statement: “The case represents a bipartisan effort to curtail Meta’s monopoly power and restore competition to ensure freedom and innovation in the social media ecosystem.”
But it remains to be seen whether the trial will hurt Meta in any way because it is expected to drag into President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming term.
Khan is an outspoken critic of tech giants. In October, the judge also ruled that the FTC could proceed with antitrust claims against Amazon. In September, the agency slammed social media firms for failing to protect user data and privacy.
However, quite a few powerful right-wing figures in Washington and Silicon Valley relentlessly criticize both the FTC’s chair and government regulation in general.
It’s unclear how aggressive Trump’s new administration will be toward big tech firms. The President-elect attacked Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg during the election campaign but essentially stopped after Zuckerberg publicly pledged to remain neutral in the election race.
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