FTC v. Meta live: Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand

The long-awaited antitrust trial between Meta and the Federal Trade Commission kicked off on April 14th. Over about two months, DC District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg is hearing arguments about whether then-Facebook illegally monopolized the market for “personal social networking services” through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

The FTC first brought the case in late 2020. While it was initially thrown out by the judge, he let an amended version move forward after the government beefed up details about why it thinks Meta is a monopoly. This phase of the trial will help the judge determine if Meta is liable for breaking antitrust law. If he finds that to be true, he’ll later rule on how those harms should be remedied. The FTC is pushing for Instagram and WhatsApp should be spun off.

This is the third US trial seeking to break up Big Tech in recent years, following the Justice Department’s two separate cases against Google over its search and ad tech businesses.

Read below for all of our updates on the FTC v. Meta case.

• “Only the paranoid survive.”
• ChatGPT’s image generation gets a shoutout.
• AI is solving Meta’s ‘negative network effects’ problem.
• “I don’t like it when our competitors do better than us.”
• Zuckerberg: TikTok slowed Meta’s growth ‘dramatically.’
• Apple, Google, and Snap accuse Meta of being reckless with their confidential info.
• Zuckerberg’s antitrust testimony aired his wildest ideas in Meta’s history
• Meta reportedly offered $1 billion to settle the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit.
• We’re done with day two of Zuckerberg’s testimony.
• Your Honor, we sell ads.
• “What is MeWe?”
• Zuckerberg takes an opportunity to jab the EU.
• Meta doesn’t “optimize directly” for time spent on its platform.
• Meta’s antitrust trial slide redactions aren’t actually hiding anything
• The FTC is done questioning Zuckerberg for now.
• The FTC is trying to pin Zuckerberg down on its market definition.
• Mark Zuckerberg once suggested wiping all Facebook friends lists to boost usage
• Zuckerberg sees LinkedIn as competition.
• Mark Zuckerberg suggested spinning off Instagram
• Zuckerberg offered to buy Snapchat for $6 billion.
• Meta discussed having a feed that only contains ads.
• Zuckerberg’s “crazy idea” to reset everyone Facebook’s friends to zero.
• People like ads, actually?
• After Snapchat turned Zuckerberg down, he worried about the rise of Stories.
• Zuckerberg: Snapchat would have grown faster with us.
• Meta was worried about early messaging apps expanding into its business.
• Meta considered blocking rival messaging app ads.
• “A billion dollars is very expensive.”
• Settlers of Catan makes a cameo.
• Zuckerberg downplays that he wanted to buy Instagram to ‘neutralize a potential competitor.’
• We’re here for day two of the FTC v. Meta trial.
• Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand
• Here’s how the FTC began its case against Meta.
• A slow start to the trial.
• Facebook considered keeping Instagram alive to keep “everyone from hating us.”
• “I wonder if we should consider buying Instagram.”
• Facebook had interns working on its Instagram competitor.
• Zuckerberg’s testimony trudges through years of social media history.
• “Mission accomplished.”
• Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand.
• Here are the slides Meta used to lay out its defense.
• Facebook and Instagram traffic surged when TikTok went down.
• Meta slams FTC’s “grab bag” case as “at war with the facts, and at war with the law.”
• FTC previews evidence that Meta allegedly sought to extinguish Instagram and WhatsApp as threats.
• We’re at the courthouse where Meta is facing its existential antitrust trial.
• Meta goes to trial to avoid a breakup of Instagram and WhatsApp
• FTC chair says he’d ‘obey lawful orders’ if Trump asked to drop an antitrust case like Meta’s
• Judge says the FTC’s Meta monopoly lawsuit can go forward
• Federal court dismisses FTC’s bid to unwind Instagram from Facebook
• The FTC is suing Facebook to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp