(14 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Menlo Park, California – 3 February 2023
1. Sign at Meta headquarters
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oakland, California – 14 March 2025
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"Meta Platforms is facing what might be the biggest legal challenge in its history. It’s an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission under the first Trump administration, alleging that Meta operates an illegal monopoly."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Menlo Park, California – 3 February 2023
3. Various exteriors of Meta headquarters
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oakland, California – 14 March 2025
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"So the FTC is arguing that when Meta bought Instagram, and WhatsApp, which are two social media powerhouses now, it did so to squash competition and eliminate rivals."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington – 14 April 2025
5. U.S. Courthouse entrance
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oakland, California – 14 March 2025
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"So if the FTC prevails in this eight-week trial, what they’re seeking is to break off WhatsApp and Instagram from Meta Platforms. So Meta would only have basically its Facebook and AI business. This would be a huge blow for Meta because it’s estimated that about 50% of its advertising revenue comes from Instagram."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Menlo Park, California – 12 February 2014
7. Thumbs-up "like" sign in front of Facebook campus
POOL
Washington DC – 31 January 2024
8. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaking at Senate Judiciary Committee on social media
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oakland, California – 14 March 2025
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press:
"So this is a really important trial for Meta and also for the tech industry as a whole. It really will test how much the FTC will go up against big tech companies that have come to dominate our lives."
STORYLINE:
Meta Platforms Inc. faces a historic antitrust trial beginning Monday that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.
The looming antitrust trial will be the first big test of President Donald Trump’s Federal Trade Commission’s ability to challenge Big Tech. The lawsuit was filed against Meta — then called Facebook — in 2020, during Trump’s first term. It claims the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to squash competition and establish an illegal monopoly in the social media market.
Meta, the FTC argues, has maintained a monopoly by pursuing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy, "expressed in 2008: ‘It is better to buy than compete.’ True to that maxim, Facebook has systematically tracked potential rivals and acquired companies that it viewed as serious competitive threats."
Facebook also enacted policies designed to make it difficult for smaller rivals to enter the market and “neutralize perceived competitive threats,” the FTC says in its complaint, just as the world shifted its attention to mobile devices from desktop computers.
“Unable to maintain its monopoly by fairly competing, the company’s executives addressed the existential threat by buying up new innovators that were succeeding where Facebook failed,” the FTC says.
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