Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg testified Monday in a historic US antitrust trial in which his social media behemoth is accused of abusing its market dominance to purchase Instagram and WhatsApp before they could compete.
Attorneys for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) contend that Facebook, which has since changed its name to Meta, has targeted competitors.
Zuckerberg was given an internal Facebook email from 2011 warning that Instagram was a smash on smartphones and could easily replicate what his social network offered.
Another 2012 email about acquiring Instagram proposed merely leaving the program operating without any updates while Facebook built its own products, so avoiding offending users by shutting it down.
Zuckerberg downplayed those exchanges as early talk before plans for Instagram came together.
The start of the trial in a Washington federal court dashed the hopes of Zuckerberg that the return of President Donald Trump to the White House would see the government let up on the enforcement of antitrust law against Big Tech.
Content retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/world/meta-chief-zuckerberg-testifies-in-landmark-antitrust-trial-over-instagram-whatsapp-acquisitions-13879954.html.
