Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the witness stand Monday to defend his company against accusations by the Federal Trade Commission that it bought competing social media companies to dominate the market with a monopoly.
It was the first of what is expected to be two days of testimony for Zuckerberg, who will seek to explain two of his company’s most important acquisitions, Instagram and WhatsApp.
And although Zuckerberg is no stranger to defending his company, the stakes in this case may be higher than ever before. If the FTC wins, Meta could be forced to break itself apart and spin off WhatsApp and Instagram, which would upend the company’s core digital advertising business and reshape the broader social media ecosystem.
Meta relies on the 3.3 billion daily users it claims across its platforms as one of the core selling points of its ad business, which last year alone raked in more than $160 billion in revenue.
