Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has faced accusations that it holds too much power in the social media market. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Meta, alleging that its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 were anticompetitive. But now the court has ruled in Meta's favor, which means these apps will remain under one roof.
How It All Began
It all started five years ago, when the FTC filed a lawsuit against Meta. The commission argued that Meta should not have been allowed to buy Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. According to the FTC, these acquisitions helped Meta create a monopoly in social networking, where people share messages, photos and videos with friends and family. The FTC wanted the court to order these apps to be separated from Meta, which could have threatened the company's entire structure—Instagram is estimated to generate half of its revenue.
The trial began in April 2025 and lasted seven months. Key figures testified during the proceedings, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. The FTC argued that Meta operates a "buy or bury" system, meaning that it either acquires competitors or destroys them. However, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ultimately ruled otherwise. He had already dismissed the lawsuit once in 2021, saying that the FTC lacked sufficient evidence of Meta's monopoly power, but after details about user numbers and comparisons with competitors such as Snapchat and the now-defunct Google+ were added, the court allowed the case to proceed in 2022.
Court Ruling: No Monopoly
In a memorandum dated November 18, 2025, Judge James Boasberg clearly stated that the FTC had failed to prove that Meta currently holds a monopoly in social media. "Whether or not Meta possessed monopoly power in the past, the agency must prove that it still has it now," Boasberg wrote. According to him, the market has changed dramatically—whereas it was once primarily about sharing text and photos, video content now dominates. Meta faces strong competition from platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, which people use in ways similar to Facebook or Instagram.
Boasberg emphasized that people are shifting enormous amounts of time away from Meta's apps and toward TikTok and YouTube. "The most-used part of Meta's apps is thus indistinguishable from the offerings on TikTok and YouTube," he stated. He even said that, even if YouTube were excluded, TikTok alone would be enough for the FTC to lose. According to the court, Meta invests enormous sums of money to keep pace with these rivals, and internal documents from both TikTok and YouTube confirm that these companies view Meta as a serious threat. By contrast, the FTC provided no empirical evidence that Meta is hindering competition today, let alone that it did so years ago.
Celebration at Meta and Disappointment at the FTC
Meta celebrated the victory. The company's chief legal officer, Jennifer Newstead, stated: "The court's decision recognizes that Meta faces fierce competition. Our products benefit people and businesses and represent American innovation and economic growth. We look forward to continuing to work with the government and invest in America." Meta's shares fell by less than 1% following the verdict, but overall the company is up 2% in 2025, although it is lagging behind broader indexes and other tech giants.
On the other hand, the FTC was disappointed. Director of Public Affairs Joe Simonson said: "We are deeply disappointed in this decision. The deck was always stacked against us with Judge Boasberg, who is facing articles of impeachment. We are considering all options." Boasberg has faced criticism from Republicans in Congress over his rulings against the Trump administration's immigration measures and his approval of subpoenas for Republican lawmakers' phone records in connection with the investigation into Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
Impact on These Apps
This verdict is a huge relief for Meta because Instagram and WhatsApp will remain part of the company. WhatsApp is the world's most popular messaging app. And Instagram generates half of its revenue. For the FTC, this represents a setback in its effort to curb the power of tech giants—recall that the FTC is also suing Amazon over anticompetitive practices, while the U.S. Department of Justice has sued Apple over a "broad, sustained, and illegal smartphone monopoly." By contrast, Google recently avoided the harshest penalties in another antitrust case, in which Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in internet search but does not have to sell the Chrome browser.
Sources: theguardian.com, cnbc.com and theinformation.com
