US FTC during Facebook-parent Meta’s antitrust trial: ‘Consumers do not have…’

Facebook parent Meta Platforms is facing an antitrust trial over its ownership of popular social media and messaging apps Instagram and WhatsApp, respectively. At the beginning of a high-stakes trial, an attorney for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that the acquisition of nascent rivals Instagram and WhatsApp deprived consumers of the potential benefits these companies would have offered as independent entities. The trial, filed during President Donald Trump’s first term, centers on the FTC’s claim that Meta strategically bought the companies roughly a decade ago after its attempts to compete in the social media market had failed.

What US FTC said about Meta’s ownership of WhatsApp and Instagram