Taxpayer Watchdog Group Slams Groundless FTC Case Against Meta

Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began its trial against Meta, seeking to unwind the company’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram and 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp. Despite the innovative energy and capital Meta has poured into these platforms, taking them from a up-and-comers to the giant they are today, the FTC wrongly believes that Meta has achieved its current place due to anticompetitive conduct.

In response to the trial, David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, offered the following statement: 

“The FTC is targeting one of America’s most successful and innovative tech companies without anything remotely approaching a compelling public interest. It’s true that Meta is large, but that’s because it has embraced innovation and satisfied the needs of the users of its various platforms. It’s true that Meta benefitted from acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, but that’s because it poured resources into the two platforms to turn them into the popular platforms they are today.

“This story is a success story of pro-competitive and pro-consumer work by Meta. Consumers have enjoyed its products, and competitors have raced to keep up. It should also be noted that competition within the social media market – the market defined properly, not defined according to the FTC’s dubious theories. Facebook and Instagram must compete with TikTok, YouTube, X, Reddit, Snapchat, and many more, while WhatsApp faces a similar array of rivals.

“This trial is the first big outing for the Trump FTC. It is still early, and the agency faces a choice. It can continue down the path of targeting successful American companies – following its predecessor, the Biden-era FTC under Lina Khan – or it can chart a different path, restoring the agency to the limited role as a defender of consumers and competition that it was intended to play.”