To win monopoly fight, Meta is touting a rival: TikTok

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Instagram and Facebook have become more like TikTok

- Dave Michaels

Weeks into an antitrust trial that threatens the future of Meta Platforms' social-media empire, the company's best bet for a court victory might lie with one of its rivals: TikTok.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to break up Meta, alleging that it wields an illegal monopoly originally built more than a decade ago through Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. To prevail, the agency needs to show not only that Meta engaged in unlawful monopolization, but also that its dominance hasn't waned since.

That is where TikTok comes in.

The FTC has been methodically presenting evidence to support its claim that Meta has muscled out most competition in the market for consumers who use social media to connect with friends and family.

Meta has sought to undercut that claim by arguing that the social-media marketplace has evolved into a form of entertainment and news. In today's world, Meta says, TikTok's short-form video platform is a formidable rival. That position has scored some points.

Under questioning Wednesday from a Meta lawyer, a senior TikTok executive testified that his company isn't like Instagram and Facebook.

"We are an app and we have social features, but I don't think of us as a social app," said Adam Presser, TikTok's head of operations.

Meta's lawyers then highlighted a series of internal TikTok analyses that muddied the waters. "YouTube and Instagram are TikTok's most important competitors," one management document from 2021 said.