The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated legal action against Meta, alleging that the company has created an illegal monopoly in social media by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. The antitrust agency will seek to prove that these deals should be overturned. Reuters reports on this development.

According to the FTC, the acquisitions aimed to eliminate competitors that posed a threat to Facebook's dominance as a primary social media platform. The lawsuit was filed in 2020 during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Meta's legal chief, Jennifer Newstead, has labeled the case as weak and detrimental to technology investments in her blog.

"It is absurd that the FTC is attempting to dismantle a major American company at the same time the administration is trying to save the Chinese TikTok," writes Newstead.

Since Trump’s election, Meta has frequently engaged with him, opting out of content moderation that Republicans deem censorship, and donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also visited the White House several times in recent weeks.

Zuckerberg is expected to testify in court, where he will be questioned about emails in which he proposed buying Instagram to eliminate a potential competitor to Facebook, as well as his concerns that WhatsApp could evolve into a social network.

In court filings, Meta insists that its acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 has benefited users. The company also argues that Zuckerberg's past remarks have become outdated given the fierce competition from TikTok, YouTube, and Apple’s iMessage.

The FTC believes that Meta holds a monopoly in the market for platforms enabling communication with friends and family. It states that Meta’s main competitors in the U.S. are only Snapchat and MeWe, while services like X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit, which are content-sharing platforms based on shared interests, are not considered direct competitors.

The trial is scheduled for July 2025. If the FTC wins, it will have to demonstrate that the forced divestiture of Meta's assets, such as Instagram or WhatsApp, would indeed restore competition in the market.