Meta is trying to get its antitrust case thrown out in the middle of the trial

The FTC conscionable rested its lawsuit pursuing weeks of grounds successful a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Meta. But earlier Meta tin statesman its defense, the company's lawyers person opted for different move: asking the justice to propulsion retired the lawsuit entirely.

The institution filed a motion connected Thursday asking US District justice James Boasberg to flip retired the FTC's case, arguing that the regulator has not proved that Meta acted anticompetitively. "Meta has made 2 promising mobile apps with uncertain prospect: 2 of the astir palmy apps successful the world, enjoyed by astir fractional of the planet's colonisation (including hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers) connected demand, successful unlimited quantities, each for free," the filing says, "The FTC has not carried its load to beryllium that Meta 'is presently violating the antitrust laws.'"

The company's reasoning is akin to past arguments it's made astir the FTC's case. Meta has said that Instagram and WhatsApp were capable to turn to one-billion-user services due to the fact that of the company's investments. The institution besides takes issue with the FTC's assertion that determination is simply a deficiency of contention for "personal societal networking services." (The FTC has argued that Meta's lone competitors for societal networking are Snapchat and MeWe, a tiny privacy-focused societal app that runs connected decentralized protocols.)

So far, the month-long proceedings has seen a fig of salient existent and erstwhile Meta executives instrumentality the stand, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, erstwhile COO Sheryl Sandberg and Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom. Their grounds has revealed new details astir the interior workings of the societal media institution and its tactics to enactment up of imaginable competitors.