In a significant legal victory for Big Tech, a U.S. federal judge ruled in favor of Meta Platforms on Tuesday, dismissing an antitrust lawsuit that sought to force the company to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. The ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, is a major setback for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which had argued that Meta’s acquisitions were anticompetitive moves to eliminate emerging rivals and maintain an illegal social media monopoly.
Breaking News: Meta did not violate antitrust law when it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, a judge ruled, a major win for Facebook’s parent company.
https://t.co/fump6iMtEx— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 18, 2025
The judge agreed with Meta’s argument that the social media landscape has changed dramatically since the acquisitions were made in 2012 and 2014. Critically, the court found that the FTC failed to prove that Meta holds a monopoly, pointing specifically to the competitive pressure exerted by newer rivals like ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube, which the FTC had incorrectly excluded from the market definition. “Even if YouTube is out, including TikTok alone defeats the FTC’s case,” the judge noted.
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The ruling ends a five-year legal battle and prevents what was considered an existential threat to Meta, which heavily relies on Instagram for a substantial portion of its advertising revenue and uses both platforms to drive its future strategy. The decision provides a moment of relief for Big Tech, which is facing an intensified antitrust crackdown involving major lawsuits against Amazon, Google, and Apple.
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