Previously the FTC had been running such that, if it could not prove an acquisition was bad it would approve it.
In this case, back in 2012 Instagram was small, didn't charge money, and not considered a competitor to Facebook.
Well, we sure as hell know now it was a bad idea. Harmed consumer privacy, removed other competitors, and expanded the network effect of then Facebook.
And before anyone says "oh what about YouTube, X, TikTok, competitors" - Yes they should all be split off from their parent companies too.
My favorite was that the deal was where Facebook agreed not to import IG into FB. They have merged the two together so much so that if Facebook has a complete outage, so does IG. Not only that, but Facebook "magically" knows when I'm on IG and vice versa.
> They have merged the two together so much so that if Facebook has a complete outage, so does IG.
If AWS has a complete outage, so do many completely unrelated businesses. As a regulator, "running on the same infrastructure" would be the least of my worries and an acceptable carve-out for a "no integration" clause.
Also, Facebook/Meta said they would not be able to link WhatsApp accounts to facebook accounts. After they were allowed to buy WhatsApp they unsurprisingly began using metadata for things like knowing who Facebook users are talking to.
They paid some fines that they show no sign of caring about.
I don't think the people running the FTC care what happens so long as they land a huge sum of money to satisfy their boss. I suspect the FTC is not long for this world anyway and after this, it'll be a much more direct threat. Maybe I'm too paranoid and pessimistic, but a year ago that wouldn't even have been a consideration. Now, it's a possibility.
This anti-big-tech hysteria in the US is dangerous. Applying early 20th antitrust thinking to modern tech companies is short sighted and doesn't show the whole picture. These American big tech companies that people like Steve Bannon and Lina Khan want to split up have been responsible for not only the impressive US GDP and wealth recovery and growth since the 2008 financial crisis but also for much of the rest of the world's wealth recovery and growth since the 2008 crisis.
Danish pension funds have 25% allocation on US stocks but ~70% of the total returns in 2022-2024 came from US stocks with big tech companies leading the charge.
As far as I'm aware, the FTC's collections are unencumbered, so they just go into the general fund along with things like taxes. That's used to finance the basic and ongoing operations of the federal government. Collections by other agencies are sometimes earmarked by Congress to do things like set aside x% of collections to fund further enforcement actions or divert a bit into something like the SEC's whistleblower fund.
"Zuckerberg offered much less and hoped Trump would back him up."
I wouldn't be surprised if a certain amount was offered through backchannels to his family, and someway, somehow, Trump didn't have the influence over this case like was expected.
Trump is offended by measly sums which Zuck has put in his pocket. Anti-trust crusade is a perfect way to shake more from him. Give the bully an inch, he will take a mile.
> “We haven’t been shy about explaining why it doesn’t make sense for the FTC to bring a case to trial that requires it to prove something every 17-year-old in America knows is absurd—that Instagram doesn’t compete with TikTok,” she said.
In this hypothetical scenario:
1. Instagram competes with TikTok, winning a minority share of the market.
2. The government decrees that TikTok is anathema and expels them from the market.
3. The government sues Instagram for having a supermajority share of the remaining market.
I feel like there should be a form of estoppel preventing the argument.
Maybe apps that take less than 3 minutes for a 17-year-old to install, register account, and learn how to use, are not really defensible "monopolies" and maybe these apps shouldn't be the target of antitrust laws that were intended for early 20th century robber barons.
There is nothing wrong with acquisitions. It's one way big companies rejuvenate, and startups get a liquidity event. And if it's not an acquihire, the product can get broader distribution. Some companies are started to be acquired; their product of value mostly to big companies.
If you're going to be an ass kisser, you can't do it half way. You gotta make the ass being kissed like it's the only ass you'll ever kiss again. Phony ass kissing is so obvious that the ass being kissed is insulted even more. At that point, you'd have been better off doing nothing
The bending of the knee wasn't followed by a briefcase full of cash, or a large enough donation to the campaign/library fund, or not enough meme coin purchase. Maybe he should have shown up to Mar-a-lago wearing a Trump watch carrying a Trump bible. In other words, Zuck didn't come across as truly loyal in his meetings with Trump.
Well put, perhaps this could be the beginning of a super rich person rebelling against the current administration? Goodness knows somebody needs to, or he will run them all over until it's time to completely burn the rest of us who don't have the means to defend ourselves in court. If recent news is to be believed from major networks simply reporting what trump says, NOTHING is beyond his contempt for anyone who doesn't bend the knee, which is un-american.
How I would hate to see Zuck of all people be displayed as some kind of key figure in resisting fascism. The enabler of ethnic purges, proven criminal, put up on whatever kind of pedestal. And then the silly people forever reminding me of it by saying something along the lines: "But look, he did something with his money! He got us freedom back!" or some other BS. Maybe I should already practice restraint, just in case.
Isn’t that pretty much the playbook though? The younger evil villain slays the older evil villain to take its place? Just because one slays the evil ruler doesn’t mean they are just themselves.
There is this silver lining to all the tech boot licking, it didn't even work. They should have just stood their ground, what was your soul worth, Jeff, Mark, etc.?
I'm not sure if they have a soul either. However, they hate losing money! Which we can call motivation to fight back in ways that us normals can't. After Elon loses enough money we may see a political divorce of epic proportions, that will be very entertaining to watch. (Can you imagine what it will be like if trump threatens the Starlink contracts?!?)
Whatsapp and Instagram only compete with others if you can convince others to install another app and switch to it. Switching phones is easier, so is whatever else you personally use by far. I'm glad beeper exists, but it shouldn't have taken this long for it to exist. Only one way to reduce harmful network effects, give users more choice.
As your article states, even in 2022 this was done as well. Restricting China from getting top of the line GPUs is nothing new or unique to the current administration.
The difference is that Nvidia actually worked with the previous administration, had enough time to design chips that met the requirements and wasn’t stuck holding inventory.
Not holding my breath, Weimar industrialists were backing the conservative-Nazi alliance until conservatives were all gone. Modern American barons are of the same foreseeing capabilities (unless they’re Thiel who wants monarchy or whatever).
Get fucked, Zuck. I hope the knee-bending was worth it! I also hope that any case (as one could be pretty sure there will be litigation over it) in the future finds in favor of the commission. The fine can't be big enough for the shit it's put the world through.
That's an actual problem with all these platforms that decided to censor the 'misinformation' but how genuine Zuckerberg is being at any given time, I don't know
https://archive.ph/w58QJ
Why is a fine even an acceptable resolution?
Previously the FTC had been running such that, if it could not prove an acquisition was bad it would approve it.
In this case, back in 2012 Instagram was small, didn't charge money, and not considered a competitor to Facebook.
Well, we sure as hell know now it was a bad idea. Harmed consumer privacy, removed other competitors, and expanded the network effect of then Facebook.
And before anyone says "oh what about YouTube, X, TikTok, competitors" - Yes they should all be split off from their parent companies too.
My favorite was that the deal was where Facebook agreed not to import IG into FB. They have merged the two together so much so that if Facebook has a complete outage, so does IG. Not only that, but Facebook "magically" knows when I'm on IG and vice versa.
Much like when a company is acquired and the execs of the acquisition assure everyone that nothing is going to change.
Until it inevitably and drastically does because those execs no longer have any real power even if they weren’t explicitly lying.
Oh yeah, lots of "First Time?" meme opportunities during acquisition.
>deal was where Facebook agreed not to import IG into FB
What deal was this?
This was for WhatsApp
> They have merged the two together so much so that if Facebook has a complete outage, so does IG.
If AWS has a complete outage, so do many completely unrelated businesses. As a regulator, "running on the same infrastructure" would be the least of my worries and an acceptable carve-out for a "no integration" clause.
Running on separate infrastructure makes it a lot easier to confirm for an auditor, that data is not being merged or used in combination though.
Also I think if you sign up for Instagram you get Threads lol
Nice account you got there, would be a shame if you deleted Threads and also deletes your Insta
Also, Facebook/Meta said they would not be able to link WhatsApp accounts to facebook accounts. After they were allowed to buy WhatsApp they unsurprisingly began using metadata for things like knowing who Facebook users are talking to.
They paid some fines that they show no sign of caring about.
I don't think the people running the FTC care what happens so long as they land a huge sum of money to satisfy their boss. I suspect the FTC is not long for this world anyway and after this, it'll be a much more direct threat. Maybe I'm too paranoid and pessimistic, but a year ago that wouldn't even have been a consideration. Now, it's a possibility.
The FTC signed off on the acquisition.
Now they have third party buyers remorse.
This anti-big-tech hysteria in the US is dangerous. Applying early 20th antitrust thinking to modern tech companies is short sighted and doesn't show the whole picture. These American big tech companies that people like Steve Bannon and Lina Khan want to split up have been responsible for not only the impressive US GDP and wealth recovery and growth since the 2008 financial crisis but also for much of the rest of the world's wealth recovery and growth since the 2008 crisis.
Danish pension funds have 25% allocation on US stocks but ~70% of the total returns in 2022-2024 came from US stocks with big tech companies leading the charge.
"monopolies are good because line goes up"
>monopolies
Where exactly? They lose market share to every new AI wrapper app and most young people are on the Chinese video app.
>are good because line goes up
The "line goes up" sarcasm really doesn't work when we are actually suddenly in a "line goes down" situation and it clearly sucks.
So weird seeing him dressed up without his redpilled-Zuck-style over-sized t-shirt.
Ed Hardy isn’t a good look for him
Assuming Mark Zuckerberg coughs up 30 billion somehow, who gets that money? Like really, and where does it go to? Serious question.
As far as I'm aware, the FTC's collections are unencumbered, so they just go into the general fund along with things like taxes. That's used to finance the basic and ongoing operations of the federal government. Collections by other agencies are sometimes earmarked by Congress to do things like set aside x% of collections to fund further enforcement actions or divert a bit into something like the SEC's whistleblower fund.
The treasury. It basically means 30 billion fewer dollars will need to be conjured for outgoing payments.
Oh look, here's how we can pay for that tax cut for the über wealthy! Thanks Zuck!!
It could be well invested in areas preventing social media addiction, like education for example.
"Who gets it" and "where does it go" are the same question.
Trump's kids?
"Zuckerberg offered much less and hoped Trump would back him up."
I wouldn't be surprised if a certain amount was offered through backchannels to his family, and someway, somehow, Trump didn't have the influence over this case like was expected.
Trump is offended by measly sums which Zuck has put in his pocket. Anti-trust crusade is a perfect way to shake more from him. Give the bully an inch, he will take a mile.
> “We haven’t been shy about explaining why it doesn’t make sense for the FTC to bring a case to trial that requires it to prove something every 17-year-old in America knows is absurd—that Instagram doesn’t compete with TikTok,” she said.
In this hypothetical scenario:
1. Instagram competes with TikTok, winning a minority share of the market.
2. The government decrees that TikTok is anathema and expels them from the market.
3. The government sues Instagram for having a supermajority share of the remaining market.
I feel like there should be a form of estoppel preventing the argument.
Maybe apps that take less than 3 minutes for a 17-year-old to install, register account, and learn how to use, are not really defensible "monopolies" and maybe these apps shouldn't be the target of antitrust laws that were intended for early 20th century robber barons.
"FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson found the offer not credible, and wasn't ready to settle for anything less than $18 billion and a consent decree."
"Former FTC Chair Lina Khan told the Journal that the company's $450 million settlement offer was "delusional.""
just ban all acquisitions and stop the charades. all acquisitions will be anti competitive if they succeed anyway
I take it you don’t work in a startup.
That’s the sole reason most startups exist, the hope for payday by acquisition..
That might be amazing.
What? How would that work?
Startups would try and build a profitable business instead of aiming for an acquisition.
Or do you mean preventing the acquisitions in a legal manner?
There is nothing wrong with acquisitions. It's one way big companies rejuvenate, and startups get a liquidity event. And if it's not an acquihire, the product can get broader distribution. Some companies are started to be acquired; their product of value mostly to big companies.
Microsoft will be targeted last, [0] with good reason. (They know how to avoid anti-trust scrutiny the best).
This is why Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta have all been targeted first, before building a huge case for Microsoft.
Again, it won't be easy as the FTC and the DOJ have failed to break Microsoft up many times.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41475806
People saying Zuck's ass kissing didn't work are missing the point. If it even has a 1 in 10 chance of working, it's worth it
If you're going to be an ass kisser, you can't do it half way. You gotta make the ass being kissed like it's the only ass you'll ever kiss again. Phony ass kissing is so obvious that the ass being kissed is insulted even more. At that point, you'd have been better off doing nothing
Looks like all the bending the knee to Trump didn't work out so well for Zuck.
The bending of the knee wasn't followed by a briefcase full of cash, or a large enough donation to the campaign/library fund, or not enough meme coin purchase. Maybe he should have shown up to Mar-a-lago wearing a Trump watch carrying a Trump bible. In other words, Zuck didn't come across as truly loyal in his meetings with Trump.
Well put, perhaps this could be the beginning of a super rich person rebelling against the current administration? Goodness knows somebody needs to, or he will run them all over until it's time to completely burn the rest of us who don't have the means to defend ourselves in court. If recent news is to be believed from major networks simply reporting what trump says, NOTHING is beyond his contempt for anyone who doesn't bend the knee, which is un-american.
How I would hate to see Zuck of all people be displayed as some kind of key figure in resisting fascism. The enabler of ethnic purges, proven criminal, put up on whatever kind of pedestal. And then the silly people forever reminding me of it by saying something along the lines: "But look, he did something with his money! He got us freedom back!" or some other BS. Maybe I should already practice restraint, just in case.
Isn’t that pretty much the playbook though? The younger evil villain slays the older evil villain to take its place? Just because one slays the evil ruler doesn’t mean they are just themselves.
There is this silver lining to all the tech boot licking, it didn't even work. They should have just stood their ground, what was your soul worth, Jeff, Mark, etc.?
You seem to imply these billios had a soul in the first place. I really doubt that’s the case.
I'm not sure if they have a soul either. However, they hate losing money! Which we can call motivation to fight back in ways that us normals can't. After Elon loses enough money we may see a political divorce of epic proportions, that will be very entertaining to watch. (Can you imagine what it will be like if trump threatens the Starlink contracts?!?)
Those souls were sold a looong time ago.
it never does
Whatsapp and Instagram only compete with others if you can convince others to install another app and switch to it. Switching phones is easier, so is whatever else you personally use by far. I'm glad beeper exists, but it shouldn't have taken this long for it to exist. Only one way to reduce harmful network effects, give users more choice.
It would be hilarious if Zuckerberg spent all this time kissing Trump's ass only for him to not care and the FTC wins against Meta.
A big looming federal court case or judgement gives Trump leverage, why would he intervene so soon?
I'm sure it was always the plan. Trump never forgives but he wants to humiliate and lure in before he strikes
Before departing, Lina Khan slips him a memo suggesting that the Facebook Feed undercuts Truth Social
See Nvidia
https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/16/trump_responds_to_nvi...
As your article states, even in 2022 this was done as well. Restricting China from getting top of the line GPUs is nothing new or unique to the current administration.
The difference is that Nvidia actually worked with the previous administration, had enough time to design chips that met the requirements and wasn’t stuck holding inventory.
The sooner big business learns you don't play ball with fascist the better.
Not holding my breath, Weimar industrialists were backing the conservative-Nazi alliance until conservatives were all gone. Modern American barons are of the same foreseeing capabilities (unless they’re Thiel who wants monarchy or whatever).
geez, like three days ago I though NVIDIA was saved, now not, let's see what happens tomorrow.
Get fucked, Zuck. I hope the knee-bending was worth it! I also hope that any case (as one could be pretty sure there will be litigation over it) in the future finds in favor of the commission. The fine can't be big enough for the shit it's put the world through.
So much for the vaccine skepticism as free speech virtue signaling
That's an actual problem with all these platforms that decided to censor the 'misinformation' but how genuine Zuckerberg is being at any given time, I don't know
https://rumble.com/v289h2g-sasha-latypova-covid-19-counterme...