The US Federal Trade Commission has finally ushered in a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. to accuse the company of illegally monopolizing the social media market after buying Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago, so it must be split. The case, which has been in the works for many years, will be heard in Washington this Monday under the presidency of Chief Justice James Boasberg. In his court statement, the FTC's lawyers cited America's long-standing tradition of advocating the maintenance of competitive markets, and its lead trial attorney Daniel Matheson accused Meta of violating this principle. “For over 100 years, American public policy has always insisted that if a company wants to succeed, it must be achieved through competition,” Matheson said in his opening statement. “We are here today because Meta has broken this contract.” If the FTC wins the case and Instagram and WhatsApp are forcibly divested, the integration of these two apps over the years will fail, the world's two most popular digital consumer products will be impacted, and Meta's market value of hundreds of billions of dollars will be erased. This will also raise serious questions from the outside world about how the government evaluates and approves corporate mergers and acquisitions.

The US Federal Trade Commission has finally ushered in a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. to accuse the company of illegally monopolizing the social media market after buying Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago, so it must be split. The case, which has been in the works for many years, will be heard in Washington this Monday under the presidency of Chief Justice James Boasberg. In his court statement, the FTC's lawyers cited America's long-standing tradition of advocating the maintenance of competitive markets, and its lead trial attorney Daniel Matheson accused Meta of violating this principle. “For over 100 years, American public policy has always insisted that if a company wants to succeed, it must be achieved through competition,” Matheson said in his opening statement. “We are here today because Meta has broken this contract.” If the FTC wins the case and Instagram and WhatsApp are forcibly divested, the integration of these two apps over the years will fail, the world's two most popular digital consumer products will be impacted, and Meta's market value of hundreds of billions of dollars will be erased. This will also raise serious questions from the outside world about how the government evaluates and approves corporate mergers and acquisitions.