Talk about a major league Big Tech comeuppance!
Indeed, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has clearly attempted to ingratiate himself with the Trump administration … though it is also rather clear that Trump is not going to play when it comes to breaking up major monopolies.
Indeed, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson made it abundantly clear that the monopoly case against Meta is long overdue.
“The Trump-Vance FTC could not be more ready for this trial,” Ferguson asserted.
Is it ever.
According to a report from the New York Post, Meta is currently facing accusations that it engaged in a “buy or bury” strategy in order to crush potential rivals, thereby maximizing its monopoly on social media.
Indeed, the social media giant acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, which was followed by an acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 … which means billions of people worldwide are reliant on a Meta-owned platform for electronic communication.
As declared by FTC’s lead trial lawyer Daniel Matheson, “consumers do not have reasonable alternatives they can turn to.”
On his part, Zuckerberg tried to stress that Meta is moving in different directions as a company.
“The ‘friend’ part has gone down quite a bit but it’s still something we care about,” Zuckerberg asserted.
Well, it would surely make sense that Meta is focusing on “friends” less.
Especially as many “friends” (surprise!) have apparently turned out to be quite fake in the first place.
Problematically, much of the engagement that ensued on Instagram following the purchase was reportedly “fake.”
As revealed in a treasure trove of rather inconvenient emails.
“By some estimates fake engagement could be in range of 40%,” the Meta executive detailed.
Yikes.
And just imagine how much of that “fake engagement” was wired against conservatives.
The Meta executive also declared in the recently exposed emails that the “loss of public trust is the greatest threat we have.”
You don’t say!
The emails from the Meta executive may be reviewed here.
Naturally, Meta attempted to downplay the documents.
“Out-of-context and years-old documents about acquisitions that were reviewed by the FTC more than a decade ago will not obscure the realities of the competition we face or overcome the FTC’s weak case,” Meta spokesperson asserted.
Uh huh.
Such a “weak case” that Meta dominates most social media, as Google does with Internet searches.
Next!
And, apparently, Meta was ready for a “next” … as the company issued a formal statement as well.
“More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final … Regulators should be supporting American innovation, rather than seeking to break up a great American company and further advantaging China on critical issues like AI,” Meta proclaimed.
Hm, interesting point.
Though Meta apparently didn’t note that the law – not to mention company mergers – can be revisited over time.
After all, the original anti-monopoly act – the Sherman Act of 1890 – sought to break up Rockefeller.
However, inadequacies in the 1890 Sherman Act led to additional revisions of the law during the early 20thcentury, notably the Clayton Act of 1914 … which was 24 years later.
In much the same way, the Trump administration appears to be following a similar playbook.
And just as the Supreme Court can effectively reverse past decisions, the federal government can effectively reverse past mergers.
Author: Ofelia Thornton
