On Monday April 14, trial will begin in the weak antitrust lawsuit brought by the FTC, attempting to undo the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp that it cleared over ten years ago. The FTC’s case ignores how the market actually works and chases a theory that doesn’t hold up in the real world. 

Meta’s Investments Made Instagram and WhatsApp into the Experiences People Love Today

Instagram and WhatsApp provide a model for what successful acquisitions can achieve: Meta has made Instagram and WhatsApp better, more reliable and more secure through billions of dollars and millions of hours of investment. 

With features such as in-app messaging, live streaming, Stories and Reels, we have grown Instagram from a small app with an uncertain future into one that more than two billion monthly active users enjoy today, providing them with an engaging place to discover, connect and create. We evolved WhatsApp from its original paid-subscription model to a free service and added valuable features like voice and video calling, status and channels. Through our investments, WhatsApp is now an end-to-end encrypted, secure and reliable messaging service that empowers over two billion users to communicate and share all over the world every day.

Billions of users enjoy these apps today, for free. These benefits would not have been achieved without Meta’s investment and the excellence of the thousands of Meta employees who have worked on them. We also help hundreds of millions of businesses reach and engage with their customers, hire new employees and grow.

Meta Operates in a Dynamic and Hypercompetitive Space

In order for the FTC to win this case, they need to prove both that Meta has a dominant share in a properly defined product market that includes all competitors, and that the two acquisitions harmed competition and consumers. They are wrong on both claims. That’s why they’ve  gerrymandered a fictitious market in which Facebook and Instagram compete only with Snapchat and an app called MeWe. In reality, more time is spent on TikTok and YouTube than on either Facebook or Instagram – if you only add TikTok and YouTube into the FTC’s social media market definition, Meta has <30% market share.

And, the evidence of fierce and increasing competition in the market has only grown in the four years since the FTC’s complaint was filed. This underscores what we’ve said from the outset: Meta faces strong competition in a rapidly shifting tech landscape that includes American and foreign competitors. Earlier this year, when TikTok went down in the U.S., usage on Instagram spiked – because when people couldn’t use TikTok, they went to Instagram to do the same things, showing the fallacy of the FTC’s case. 

The FTC’s Case Serves Only to Undermine American Business, Waste Taxpayer Dollars and Preference Chinese TikTok

The stakes could not be higher in this trial for U.S. consumers and businesses. The FTC reviewed and cleared both acquisitions over a decade ago – and rightly so, as these deals benefited consumers and competition. For context, we acquired Instagram closer to the time when Facebook was founded than to today. This case, an unprecedented exercise in revisionist history, sends the message that no deal is ever final, and that businesses operating in America will be punished for innovating. Ultimately, an ill-conceived lawsuit like this will make companies think twice before investing in innovation, knowing they may be punished if that innovation leads to success. On top of it, this weak case is costing taxpayers millions of dollars. 

It’s absurd that the FTC is trying to break up a great American company at the same time the Administration is trying to save Chinese-owned TikTok. And, it makes no sense for regulators to try and weaken U.S. companies right at the moment we most need them to invest in winning the competition with China for leadership in AI. 

This Case Isn’t About Censorship

Despite what you might hear, this case isn’t about censorship or content decisions. In fact, the word “censorship” doesn’t appear anywhere in the FTC’s briefs. This case is about the reality of the competition we face today. 

We are confident in our case and look forward to presenting it in court.

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