The biz of data

Big Tech's entire business model depends on information. In times of antitrust violations, why you should care

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FE FEATURES THIS MONDAY, THE United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened a landmark lawsuit against Meta — an antitrust violation under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act — for which a US district court in Washington DC is holding a trial to determine if the tech giant unlawfully acquired rivals like Instagram and WhatsApp to eliminate competition and to establish a monopoly for itself in the social media space.

FTC's lead litigator Daniel Matheson said in court, "For more than 100 years, American public policy has insisted firms must compete if they want to succeed. The reason we are here is that Meta broke the deal. They decided that competition was too hard and it would be easier to buy out their rivals than to compete with them."

Meta, on the other hand, countered the allegations, saying, "This case is a grab bag of FTC theories at war with fact and at war with the law. The facts are going to prove that the FTC's theories are all wrong."

It's been over a decade since Meta acquired both of these companies. Back when the company was still called Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.

What's interesting here is that the FTC has been alleging that Meta "overpaid" both these companies to "neutralise" them, as per an internal memo. If the FTC wins the case, Meta might be forced to sell both companies, changing the way Big Tech functions.