Meta's antitrust defense wraps with one big claim: WhatsApp and Instagram couldn't be better

The Verge

25-05-2025

For five weeks, the Federal Trade Commission asked a federal judge to imagine a world where Instagram and WhatsApp flourished outside Meta's control instead of being acquired by the tech giant. In the sixth and final week of trial, Meta asked Judge James Boasberg to consider that actually, these apps might be as good as they can get.
Meta rested its case Wednesday after a brief four days in court (many of its witnesses were also called by the FTC, so it already had the chance to question them in prior weeks). In those final days, Meta called on WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton and an early Instagram infrastructure executive to explain how Meta helped those apps grow in ways they'd be unlikely to otherwise — countering testimony from Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom, who claimed Meta withheld resources to help the app grow and become safer, and believed Instagram would have still been a hit on its own.
Meta argues that far from becoming competitors that checked Meta's power, Instagram and WhatsApp might have withered, remaining far less useful or accessible to consumers than they are today.
Several Meta witnesses also called out the elephant in the room: TikTok. The FTC says that social media apps primarily focused on entertainment like TikTok and YouTube are not part of the personal social networking services market it claims Meta's monopolized — where users connect to their friends and family. Meta says this definition misses the point of how competition works in the social media space. Rather than focus on how consumers use aspects of the apps, it argues, the judge should focus on which industry players compete with one another. It says what actually constrains its power is the constant fight for users' time and attention, creators' content, and ad dollars.
'Antitrust law does not require consideration of such an 'infinite range' of possible substitutes'
Economic experts helped Meta argue that TikTok's rapid growth poses real competition that must be accounted for. Though TikTok has evolved into a much more formidable competitor for Meta's products in the years since the FTC first filed the case in 2020, Boasberg warned in a November order that Meta's argument about competing for time and attention 'is true but beside the point.' Accepting Meta's view would require accepting that 'Meta competes not just with YouTube, TikTok, and X, but also with watching a movie at a friend's house, reading a book at the library, and playing online poker,' he wrote. 'Antitrust law does not require consideration of such an 'infinite range' of possible substitutes.'
He also cautioned, however, that the government's claims 'at times strain this country's creaking antitrust precedents to their limits.' During the trial, Boasberg seemed to take seriously a point Meta's chief marketing officer Alex Schultz testified to: that Facebook and Instagram have already added just about as many US users as they could possibly get. The FTC had noted that Meta's user growth rate may look slower because it's already added most of the nation's 250 million potential eligible users, but even in the face of its claimed competition from TikTok and YouTube, that doesn't mean it's not still growing overall. Schultz said that's exactly why competing for attention with those apps has become so important, since if almost everyone has them downloaded, which ones get regularly opened is what matters.
Boasberg later asked the FTC's lead economic expert, Scott Hemphill, to respond to this, adding that it would be 'pretty hard' for Instagram to be much bigger in the US than it already is. Hemphill argued that growing Instagram to its massive scale today doesn't mean Meta made social media better for users than it otherwise would be. Without Meta's stewardship, he said, the whole personal social networking market — not just Instagram — might have been a better one for consumers on metrics like consumer welfare and app quality.
'Meta is a proud American success story'
Meta has argued the FTC is living in the past and exaggerating the continued importance of friends and family sharing on its apps. Still, the company has recognized some users still want to use its products to connect with people they know in real life, prompting them to roll out 'OG Facebook,' which lets users scroll through a feed of exclusively their mutual connections, avoiding what's become the main Facebook experience in 2025 of mostly algorithmically recommended posts. Head of Facebook Tom Alison testified that on the main feed, a user might have to scroll all day to see all the posts from their friends, as the 'core experience' has moved away from this kind of content.
Judge Boasberg will decide whether the experience of connecting with friends on social media is still important enough to be a distinct market Meta dominates. He dismissed Meta's attempt to get an early ruling in its favor, however, saying he's not prepared to issue a verdict yet. Should he side with the FTC, the government would likely ask him to consider tearing away the very apps Meta bought to expand its empire.
Meta says that would stifle the exact kind of innovation that the FTC claims it's promoting. 'After six weeks trying to make their case to undo acquisitions made over a decade ago and show that no deal is ever truly final, the only thing the FTC showed was the dynamic, hyper-competitive nature of the past, present and future of the technology industry,' Meta spokesperson Chris Sgro says in a statement. 'Meta is a proud American success story, and we look forward to continuing to innovate and serve the people and businesses who love our services.'