Mark Zuckerberg defends WhatsApp, Instagram is about like FTC Meta calls for 'killer procurement' - what did he say? | Company Business News

Mark Zuckerberg testified in a Federal Trade Commission -Antitrust hearing and defended Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp against monopoly claims. He argued that Meta competes with different social media platforms and emphasizes the company’s focus to connect users with friends and family, while also learning about the world, according to a Bloomberg report. FTC highlighted Zuckerberg’s e -mails from 2011 to 2012, referring to Instagram to competition. In September 2011, Zuckerberg said: “If Instagram continues to kick a mobile device, or if Google buys it, over the next few years they can easily add pieces of their service that do the copy that does now, and if they have a growing number of people’s photos, this is a real problem for us.” The Meta founder acknowledged the e -mails quoted by FTC. What did Mark Zuckerberg say? In the report, people are allowed to contact friends and family. “However, we have always been a service that you can discover and learn what is going on in the world.” While answering a question through FTC’s main hearing advocate, Daniel Matheson, Zuckerberg referred to the creation of the Facebook News Feed in 2006 as ‘real connections with real friends’. He further claimed that he bought Instagram because of his camera technology, not because of his social network. What did FTC claim? In 2012 and 2014, FTC raised the alarm about obtaining Instagram and WhatsApp from Meta, in which he says it has a monopoly in the market. However, Meta refused these allegations, claiming that his company has many competitors. “The US public policy has demanded more than 100 years that firms should compete if they want to succeed,” the Matheson report quoted. “The reason we are here is that Meta broke the agreement.” If the claims of the FTC remain, the integration of Instagram and WhatsApp can disrupt two of the world’s most popular digital consumer products. It can also erase hundreds of billions of dollars in the market value of Meta, the report says. Meta’s ‘Killer Acquisitions’ The FTC claims Meta’s purchases from Instagram and WhatsApp were ‘killer purchases’ that prevented these businesses from competing. In 2010, ‘Meta faced a maritime change in competitive conditions’, the Matheson report cited Matheson, which emphasized the growing mobile market. “They decided that the competition was too hard and that it would be easier to buy out their opponents than to compete with them.” Apart from WhatsApp and Instagram, Meta also in 2013 Snap Inc. bought for $ 6 billion; However, the Snapchat owner did not accept the offer. Matheson also referred to “Smoking Gun” -E -mails from Meta drivers, including one from 2012 by Zuckerberg, where he calls the Instagram agreement a way to neutralize a participant. He also claimed that Meta after obtaining Instagram “fundamentally manipulated the experience” to protect Facebook. Although it is a ‘rational business decision’, he said that it “offends” the policy “of the antitrust laws. Who are Meta’s competitors? While refusing FTC delivery, Meta lawyer Mark Hansen said the competitors of the company include Tiktok, Snapchat, YouTube, iMessage and X. He referred to Tiktok’s ban on 2025 in January, saying that both Facebook and Instagram saw a boom in use. Facebook saw 20% “more use” during that time, while the use of Instagram increased by 17%, Hansen said. “The entire case of the FTC turns to convince the court that Meta does not compete with Tiktok,” the Meta report quoted. In 2019, FTC began the investigation against Meta under Donald Trump’s first term as the US president. The company was sued in 2020. Former FTC chairman Lina Khan, who served under the Biden Administration, advanced the case, now handled by chairman Andrew Ferguson, named by President Donald Trump as the agency in January. First published: 15 Apr 2025, 08:06 AM IST