Zuckerberg denies Meta -bought opponents to conquer them

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, on Wednesday denied in court that his company had bought Instagram and WhatsApp competitive services to neutralize them as his testimony in a landmark antitrust case came to an end. The case could see that the Facebook owner is being forced to sell some of the two programs, which have grown to global power stations since their buyout. During his third and final day on the stand in a federal courtroom in Washington, Zuckerberg pointed to the most important argument of the Federal Trade Commission – that Facebook, since renovating Meta, has devoured what he considered competitive threats. Facebook co-founder answered ‘no’ when asked by meta-lawyer Mark Hansen if his intention was to eliminate competitors with the purchases of a photo-sharing app Instagram and the messaging service WhatsApp. He explained that Instagram, bought in 2012, was attractive to “his camera and photo -part experience”, but added that he “does not consider it a broad network that is really competitive where we were.” As for WhatsApp, which was bought two years later, Zuckerberg testified that he considered the app technically impressive, but its founders as ‘onambicine’ in terms of ‘maximizing the impact they could potentially have.’ “I finally pushed to add things,” he told the court. Zuckerberg testified that Facebook used its scale and resources on building Instagram and WhatsApp in programs now used by billions of people. An important part of the court in the courtroom is how the Federal Trade Commission convincingly defines the Meta’s market for the judge. The US government argues that Facebook and Instagram are dominant players in programs that provide a way to make contact with family and friends, a category that does not include tapping and YouTube. Meta’s defense lawyers work against that considerable investments have transformed these acquisitions into the blockbusters they are today. They also emphasize that the programs of Meta are free for users and that they face a fierce competition. The case was originally filed in December 2020, in the last days of President Donald Trump’s first administration. Zuckerberg, the world’s third richest person, made repeated visits to the White House because he tried to persuade the president to choose settlement instead of fighting the hearing. As part of his lobby attempts, Zuckerberg contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund and the content moding policy on the content. He also bought a $ 23 million mansion in Washington in what was seen as an attempt to spend more time near the center of political power. Zuckerberg wrapped about 12 hours of evidence on Wednesday with an assessment of Tiktok, which he believes has emerged as the biggest competitive threat to Instagram and Facebook. Meta has seen the growth of its apps slow as the China-based video snippet speech sensation has flared up, and US Tech Techan added a tapping-like film to fire back in the market, according to Zuckerberg. “That said, Tiktok is still bigger than Facebook or Instagram, and I don’t like it if our competitors do better than us,” he told the court. And since video has developed into a favorite form of online media, especially on smartphones, YouTube has become a serious competition for Meta, the CEO testified. ES-GC/SST FIRST Published: 17 Apr 2025, 01:30 AM IST