Meta faces scrutiny as FTC antitrust trial begins over Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a new legal phase in its antitrust case against Meta, alleging that the company illegally maintained a monopoly in the social media market through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Initially approved by regulators—Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014—these deals are now at the centre of a lawsuit that claims Meta used a "buy or bury" strategy to suppress competition. The case, originally filed in 2020, was dismissed in 2021 but later revised by the FTC and is now proceeding in court.

Meta has pushed back, arguing that the FTC’s market definition is outdated and "ignores reality" and intense competition from TikTok and YouTube. “In reality, more time is spent on TikTok and YouTube than on either Facebook or Instagram—if you only add TikTok and YouTube into the FTC’s social media market definition, Meta has less than 30% market share,” the company said in a statement.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already testified for four hours on the opening day of the trial, with former COO Sheryl Sandberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom also expected to appear. The outcome could set a significant precedent for how antitrust law is applied across the tech sector.

If Meta is ordered to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, the financial impact would be substantial. Instagram alone is forecast to generate $32 billion in ad revenue in the US in 2025, according to Emarketer, accounting for more than half of Meta’s domestic earnings. Globally, WARC estimates Instagram’s 2024 ad revenue at $71 billion.

These figures highlight Instagram’s centrality to global advertising and influencer marketing ecosystems. Social media is expected to overtake search this year, reaching $247.3 billion in global adspend. Meta is also on track to surpass linear TV in ad revenue.

Major advertisers are doubling down on social’s potential. Unilever, for example, recently announced plans to increase its social spend from 30% to 50%, with a heavy focus on influencer-driven strategies. “We will work with 20 times more influencers,” said CEO Fernando Fernandez. “There are 19,000 zip codes in India and 5764 municipalities in Brazil. I want at least one influencer in each of them. In some, I want 100.”

While WhatsApp remains less developed as an ad platform, it boasts over two billion users across 180 countries and is increasingly being used for customer service and direct-to-consumer sales.

The FTC case against Meta is being closely watched—not only for its potential to break up one of the world’s most powerful tech platforms, but for its broader implications on the future of advertising, competition, regulation, and digital media.