Could Meta be forced to sell Instagram and WhatsApp – and would it matter?

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is accusing Meta of buying Instagram and WhatsApp over a decade ago to neutralise its competition, in line with Mark Zuckerberg’s alleged 2008 directive that “it is better to buy than compete”.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is accusing Meta of buying Instagram and WhatsApp over a decade ago to neutralise its competition, in line with Mark Zuckerberg’s alleged 2008 directive that “it is better to buy than compete”.

What is Meta accused of?

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is accusing Meta of buying Instagram and WhatsApp over a decade ago to neutralise its competition, in line with Mark Zuckerberg’s alleged 2008 directive that “it is better to buy than compete”.

When Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, emails read out in court show that Zuckerberg was worried about Facebook’s performance and that he thought Instagram was growing rapidly.

Instagram was the first company Facebook bought that was allowed to carry on running as a separate app – before then, it simply bought startups for their talented workers and then shut down the smaller company.

Two years later, it bought WhatsApp and ran that as a separate app too. Both sales were approved by the FTC at the time.