Meta is facing an antitrust trial that began on Monday, April 14, as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks to unwind the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The tech giant strongly contests the lawsuit, calling it “weak” and arguing it “ignores how the market actually works.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in federal court at the beginning of the week, rejecting the FTC’s claim that Meta maintains a monopoly among a small group of communication apps that connect people to friends and family.

Market Definition at Center of Dispute

The core disagreement centers on how to define Meta’s competitive market. The FTC argues that Meta operates in a “personal social networking market” where it holds monopoly power.

Meta contends this definition is artificially narrow. The company claims the FTC has “gerrymandered a fictitious market” in which Facebook and Instagram compete only with Snapchat and an app called MeWe while ignoring major competitors like TikTok, YouTube, and X.

“More time is spent on TikTok and YouTube than on either Facebook or Instagram,” Meta states in its announcement. The company argues that adding just these two platforms to the market definition would reduce Meta’s share to less than 30%.

Meta Defends Acquisitions as Successful Investments

Meta portrays the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions as success stories that benefited consumers. The company says it invested billions of dollars to improve these platforms, growing Instagram from “a small app with an uncertain future” to a service with over two billion monthly active users.

Meta lawyer Mark Hansen emphasized these improvements in court, noting that all services remain free to users: “What price did Meta charge before it became a supposed monopoly? It was zero, and it stayed that way until today.”

FTC Cites Internal Communications

FTC lawyer Daniel Matheson presented internal communications from Zuckerberg, including a message in which the CEO acknowledged that by buying other platforms, “what we’re really buying is time” to integrate their services before new competitors reach a similar scale.

Matheson told the court: “They decided that competition was too hard and it would be easier to buy out their rivals rather than compete with them.”

High Stakes

If Judge James E. Boasberg sides with the FTC, Meta could be forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. EMARKETER forecasts that Instagram alone is expected to account for more than half of Meta’s U.S. revenue this year.

Meta warns that the case “sends the message that no deal is ever final” and could discourage companies from investing in innovation. The trial is expected to include testimony from additional high-profile executives, including former COO Sheryl Sandberg.