The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a legal battle against Meta, accusing the company of establishing an illegal monopoly in social media through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The antitrust agency is working to demonstrate the need to reverse these transactions, according to Reuters.

The FTC claims that these acquisitions were aimed at eliminating competitors that could threaten Facebook's position as the leading social media platform. The lawsuit was filed in 2020 during Donald Trump's first presidential term.

Meta's General Counsel Jennifer Newstead described the case as weak and hindering investments in technology.

"It is absurd that the FTC is trying to dismantle a major American company at the same time the administration is attempting to save Chinese TikTok," writes Newstead.

Since Trump's election, Meta has frequently engaged with him, rejecting content moderation that Republicans view as censorship, and donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also visited the White House multiple times in recent weeks.

Zuckerberg is expected to testify in court, where he will be questioned about emails in which he suggested buying Instagram to eliminate a potential competitor to Facebook, as well as expressing concerns that WhatsApp, initially an encrypted messaging service, could turn into a social network.

In court documents, Meta insists that the acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 benefited users. The company also argues that Zuckerberg's previous comments have become outdated due to fierce competition from TikTok (ByteDance), YouTube (Google), and Apple's iMessage.

The FTC believes that Meta holds a monopoly in the communications platform market, stating that its main competitors in the U.S. are only Snapchat and MeWe. Services like X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit, which focus on sharing content among strangers based on shared interests, are not considered direct competitors of Meta.

The trial is set for July 2025. If the FTC prevails, it will have to prove that forcibly divesting Meta of assets like Instagram or WhatsApp will indeed restore competition in the market.