The FTC is asking a federal appeals court to revive its antitrust case against Meta, after a district judge threw it out last year on the grounds that Meta now competes with YouTube and TikTok and therefore cannot hold a monopoly in personal social networking. The case dates back to December 2020, when the FTC accused Meta of running a “buy-or-bury scheme” by acquiring Instagram for $1B in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19B in 2014. Judge James Boasberg sided with Meta after trial, writing the landscape has “changed markedly” and that TikTok now “holds center stage as Meta's fiercest rival.” In its appeal, the FTC argues the Sherman Antitrust Act only required it to prove Meta held a monopoly when the case was filed, not today, and that TikTok's growth is “irrelevant” because it does not meaningfully serve the friends-and-family sharing market Meta is accused of cornering.
