The FTC is Suing Meta. Will Trump Bail the Company Out?

Despite his best efforts to avoid it, Mark Zuckerberg returned to the witness stand this week. His company, Meta, is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly “illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct,” and a trial that has been five years in the making just got underway. The FTC initially brought the suit in the final weeks of Trump’s first administration, arguing that Facebook (as the company was then still called) had illegally stifled competition by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and by placing restrictions on third-party developers. In 2021, US District Court Judge James Boasberg dismissed the suit as “legally insufficient,” but the FTC amended it to present a more detailed case that accused Meta of resorting to “an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance.” Boasberg allowed the complaint to proceed and largely denied Meta’s subsequent filing for a summary judgment. He will preside over the trial as the sole decider in the case. (Interestingly, Boasberg is concurrently clashing with the Trump administration over its apparent defiance of his order to immediately halt deportations under the Alien Enemies Act; yesterday, he said he had “probable cause” to believe the administration has bucked the order, and threatened to open a contempt investigation.)