Zuckerberg has just confirmed that Facebook is no longer what it used to be. Just like that. The golden age of this application has officially come to an end, you can now say goodbye to that birthday greeting from your aunt in Wisconsin you haven’t seen since you were 14. This is how Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (the parent company of Facebook, which now also includes WhatsApp and Instagram), has admitted it.
And, in case you didn’t know, Zuckerberg is facing a historic trial in which he is up against the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The reason? The belief that he bought the competition to create a monopoly. And they want to force him to sell Instagram and WhatsApp! What’s going on? We tell you everything below.
What is happening with Meta?
As we said, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Zuckerberg for eliminating the competition through acquisitions. According to the plaintiff, Meta was beginning to suffer the effects of competition from other platforms and decided to cut it off at the root by acquiring these platforms (we are talking, of course, about two big platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp).
From connecting families to… nothing
During the trial, Zuckerberg left nothing out, he admitted that Facebook had moved to the background where it no longer fulfilled its initial purpose, which, indeed, was to connect people in different parts of the world (and yes, don’t say you don’t have a high school friend added as a friend who only shares cooking recipes and whom you’ll probably never see again in your life…).
But, even though we love Facebook, now it has become a platform where an algorithm rules that prioritizes viral content and global trends, we no longer see our neighbours’ vacations or end up on your ex’s ex who now bought a new car. What was once a social network to connect people and why not, to snoop a little, has become just another social network for fast consumption, designed to retain attention as long as possible.
Meta, under the magnifying glass
As we told you, the central axis of the lawsuit is based on Meta acquiring these two companies that were overshadowing it to eliminate all possible competition, thus creating a “monopoly” of platforms and eliminating any possibility of real competition, since neither Telegram nor Snapchat can come close to what WhatsApp and Instagram are for our mobile phones.
But that is not all, Zuckerberg has not been able to deny anything because in the trial some of his emails were presented in which he referred to Instagram as a “terrifying threat that had to be neutralized… at all costs.” As well as another offer of many billions of dollars to buy Snap in 2013.
The “salvation” of the platforms
Of course, the magnate had an ace up his sleeve. He defended that if Meta had not acquired both platforms, neither would have survived because his investment allowed them to grow into the essential tools we know today, but…
Is Meta a monopoly?
The debate continues to this day, from Meta, of course, they categorically deny these accusations and their main argument is that platforms like X, TikTok, or YouTube are direct competitors for them and they have not tried to acquire them… are you sure?
Changing the rules of the game
The trial will continue until July, and if the FTC finally wins this phase, a tougher second stage would open in which they would ask Meta to sell both Instagram and WhatsApp to promote “healthy” competition, of course, the blow would be atrocious for Meta, but for the rest of the platforms (like Google or Amazon) it would be a big warning: operate morally and legally according to the regulations because there is no “like” button that can save this situation…
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