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Overview
- U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled that Meta does not currently hold an illegal monopoly and declined to order divestitures of Instagram or WhatsApp.
- He wrote that even if Meta once had monopoly power, the FTC failed to prove Meta maintains such power today.
- The opinion emphasized evolving user behavior and platform overlap, noting users spend only 17% of their Facebook time and 7% of their Instagram time on friend content.
- Filed in 2020, the FTC’s case went to a seven-week trial in April that featured testimony from Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg.
- The decision is a setback for the government’s broader Big Tech antitrust campaign, and Meta shares pared losses after the ruling.