Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom confirms earlier reports that said Zuckerberg saw Instagram as a “threat”
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson confirmed there were settlement negotiations, said he thinks they are going to win
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said he thinks the case against Meta is going great and that they are going to win (min 3:59).
When asked if what they are doing won’t send a bad precedence for businesses, he says that Meta is different and that can be seen from what happened in 2020, where it showed how much power it has (min 4:55).
He confirmed that there were settlement negotiations but said he feels there is a need to see the case through for the American consumers (min 8:33).
“We had. It’s a big case. There’s always settlement negotiations. There were settlement negotiations. But I think it’s very important in order to protect American consumers that we see this case through. And that’s why we’re in the second week of trial,” he said.
“Settlement negotiations are always complicated, but my main goal was protecting American consumers. If that could be done with a settlement, that would be great. And if it couldn’t, we go to trial and we’re at trial,” he added.
Judge Boasberg signals openness to Meta’s argument on evolving user behavior
During an exchange with an FTC expert last week, judge Boasberg remarked that user behavior and online norms evolve over time. This comment may indicate that he is open to Meta’s core argument—that the social media landscape has changed significantly since Instagram and WhatsApp were acquired—and that competition today is broader than the FTC’s narrow market definition suggests.