<div id="readability-page-1"><figure> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> A PDF of Meta’s opening statement slides in its FTC antitrust hearing yesterday contains easy-to-remove redactions that make it possible to see everything the company didn’t want made public, The Verge has discovered. Thanks to the poor redactions, we can see sections comparing the use of Apple’s Messages app to Meta apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. The original slide displayed only a quote from Apple director of product marketing Ronak Shah describing an iMessage “core use case” allegedly similar to Facebook’s. Another, labeled “Snapchat in 2020: Competitors Are Succeeding and Not Just Meta Apps,” says that “Tiktok, Insta, FB, Messengers and YouTube” are “thriving.” <img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/Meta-FTC-Trial-slides.png/query-Y3JvcD0wLDIzLjgyMTk4OTUyODc5NiwxMDAsNTIuMzU2MDIwOTQyNDA4JnF1YWxpdHk9OTAmc3RyaXA9YWxs?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" width="1888" height="982" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/Meta-FTC-Trial-slides.png/query-Y3JvcD0wLDIzLjgyMTk4OTUyODc5NiwxMDAsNTIuMzU2MDIwOTQyNDA4JnF1YWxpdHk9OTAmc3RyaXA9YWxs"/> Those aren’t especially juicy details; at most, it looks like someone was just being cautious — or trying to be, anyway — with slides that came from other companies’ internal meetings. But the leak calls to mind mid-2023, when Sony spilled PlayStation secrets by using sharpie to hide information — which let the darker printed ink below be visible under, say, the bright light of a document scanner — in court documents shared in the Microsoft antitrust trial.</div>

META

Meta's antitrust trial revealed that poorly executed redactions in its opening statement slides allowed the public to see information the company intended to keep private. The slides compared Apple's Messages app with Meta's Instagram and WhatsApp, and noted that competitors like TikTok and YouTube are thriving. This incident echoes a previous case where Sony inadvertently revealed PlayStation secrets due to similar redaction failures in court documents.

- A PDF of Meta’s opening statement slides from its FTC antitrust hearing revealed poorly redacted information, allowing access to content the company intended to keep private.  
- The slides included comparisons of Apple’s Messages app with Meta’s Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as a mention of competitors like TikTok and YouTube thriving in 2020.  
- This incident echoes a similar leak from mid-2023, where Sony inadvertently revealed PlayStation secrets due to ineffective redaction methods in court documents.  

Meta’s antitrust trial slide redactions aren’t actually hiding anything