--- title: "Meta wins the Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit related to WhatsApp and Instagram" type: "News" locale: "zh-HK" url: "https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/266427243.md" description: "Meta won the antitrust lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The court ruled that the FTC failed to prove Meta's monopoly status in the social networking sector" datetime: "2025-11-18T18:52:09.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/266427243.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/266427243.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/266427243.md) --- > 支持的語言: [简体中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/266427243.md) | [English](https://longbridge.com/en/news/266427243.md) # Meta wins the Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit related to WhatsApp and Instagram Meta has won a highly publicized antitrust lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Previously, the FTC accused Meta of holding a monopoly in the social networking space. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. issued a memorandum opinion on Tuesday stating that the FTC failed to prove its claims in the lawsuit. This lawsuit, first filed by the FTC five years ago, centers around Meta's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Boasberg stated in the legal documents, "Regardless of whether Meta had monopoly power in the past, the agency (referring to the FTC) must prove that it currently holds such power. The ruling made by this court today finds that the FTC has failed to do so. The relevant judgment documents will be released today." Boasberg had previously dismissed the case in 2021, stating that the FTC lacked sufficient evidence to prove that "Facebook has market dominance." In August of the same year, the FTC submitted an amended complaint, adding more details about Meta's user numbers and key metrics relative to competitors such as Snapchat, the now-defunct Google+ social network, and Myspace. After reviewing the amended materials, Boasberg ruled in 2022 that the case could proceed, stating that the information submitted by the FTC was more detailed than before. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, and other current and former Meta executives testified in the lawsuit, which officially began in April of this year. The FTC argued that Meta's acquisitions of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 should not have been approved and called for the two companies to be spun off from Meta. Additionally, the agency claimed that there are currently no mainstream alternatives to Facebook and Instagram in the realm of applications for online social communication. However, the judge pointed out that a major core challenge facing the FTC is the need to prove that Meta is currently engaging in antitrust violations, rather than proving past violations—after all, the core uses of social networks years ago were vastly different from today, and the forms of content sharing at that time were completely different. He wrote in the documents, "To obtain the permanent injunction it seeks, the FTC must prove that (Meta) is currently engaging in or is about to engage in unlawful conduct Ultimately, Boasberg acknowledged Meta's defense argument: since the early development stage of Facebook, there have been significant changes in the tech industry, and now Meta faces challenges from numerous competitors like TikTok. Boasberg wrote in the ruling: "Although every piece of empirical evidence from Meta may be contentious, all the evidence points to a consistent conclusion: users view TikTok and YouTube as alternatives to Facebook and Instagram, and this competitive overlap is economically significant. In stark contrast, the Federal Trade Commission failed to provide any empirical evidence regarding the 'substitutive relationship.'" Boasberg's ruling conclusion is largely based on the changes in the social media market in recent years and the shift in Meta's position within that market. User trends have significantly tilted towards video content, with TikTok and YouTube having a large user base and strong network effects in that area. He pointed out: "Therefore, the most frequently used features in Meta's applications are essentially indistinguishable from the services of TikTok and YouTube." Boasberg explained that there is ample evidence indicating that "consumers are shifting a significant amount of time from Meta's applications to platforms like TikTok and YouTube," a trend that "forces Meta to invest heavily to maintain competitiveness." "Meta is not a monopoly unaffected by competition," Boasberg wrote, "this court finds that the evidence supporting Meta on this issue is both credible and persuasive." Additionally, Boasberg cited multiple documents and testimonies from "industry insiders," which show that other tech companies like TikTok and YouTube regard Meta as a significant competitor. More than two months before this ruling was issued, Google narrowly avoided the harshest penalties in an antitrust lawsuit it lost last year. Although Google was found to have engaged in illegal monopolistic behavior in its core internet search market, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta dismissed the Department of Justice's request and did not compel Google to sell its Chrome browser. 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