The U.S. antitrust case, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) vs. Meta Platforms, began on Monday over claims that the social networking giant’s platform acquisitions were anti-competitive and a way to monopolize the market. At issue are the Meta purchases of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, which the FTC says were made to freeze out potential Facebook competitors. 

The prosecution presented some 10-year-old messages from Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, to support its premise that Facebook policies were designed to make it hard for smaller rivals to enter the market, pointing to a statement made by Zuckerberg in 2008 that “it is better to buy than compete”.

Zuckerberg took the stand as the first witness on day one saying that the acquisitions were meant to grow the company, not to eliminate competition. Meta’s stance is that it isn’t a monopoly since it does have numerous competitors in the market. 

In a company statement, Meta says, “The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others. More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final. Regulators should be supporting American innovation, rather than seeking to break up a great American company and further advantaging China on critical issues like AI.”

If the FTC prevails, Meta could be forced to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta reports having 3.3 billion daily user, a big selling point for its ad business which had more than $160 billion USD in revenue last year.