Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to the witness stand on Tuesday for a second day in a high-profile US antitrust trial, where his company is accused of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to prevent them from growing into serious rivals.
The trial, currently underway in a federal court in Washington, has disrupted Zuckerberg’s expectations that President Donald Trump’s return to office on January 20 would ease government pressure on Big Tech over antitrust enforcement.
At the heart of the case is the possibility that Meta may be forced to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp—two platforms that have become giants since Meta acquired them.
The lawsuit was first filed back in December 2020, during Trump’s initial term, raising questions over whether he would push the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to back off.
Zuckerberg, now ranked as the world’s third-richest person, has reportedly made several trips to the White House in a bid to convince President Trump to opt for a settlement rather than continue the legal battle.
As part of his outreach, the tech mogul is said to have contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund and adjusted Meta’s content moderation policies.
He also bought a $23 million mansion in Washington, reportedly to increase his presence near the heart of U.S. politics.
One of the key issues in the trial is Facebook’s 2012 billion-dollar acquisition of Instagram, which at the time was a rising photo-sharing app—now boasting over two billion active users.
On Monday, during his first day on the stand, Zuckerberg described those initial conversations as “early talk before plans for Instagram came together.”
The FTC, however, argues that Meta’s $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014 followed the same playbook—with Zuckerberg concerned the app might evolve into a full-fledged social platform or be snapped up by a rival.