Zuckerberg Just Won Big Over the Trump Administration

Facebook-owner Meta won a landmark lawsuit Tuesday when a federal judge ruled the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp don’t violate US antitrust law. The big win over the Trump administration comes at an interesting time for Meta Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, who has spent more than a year sidling up to the Republican president.

The lawsuit was filed by Trump’s first administration back in 2020. Finally reaching trial in April, government lawyers argued Meta bought the two companies rather than compete with them. Meta countered that its competitors extend far beyond friends sharing cat snaps to instead include video, commerce and private messaging. US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington said the Federal Trade Commission failed to prove the deals allowed the tech giant to illegally monopolize the social networking market.