If Meta can persuade the courtroom that the FTC’s market definition is fallacious and that TikTok is Meta’s largest rival, then Meta’s market share drops under monopolist requirements, “undercutting” the FTC’s case, Large Tech on Trial reported.

However are Fb and Instagram substitutes for TikTok?

Though Meta paints the image that TikTok customers naturally gravitated to Instagram through the TikTok outage, it is clear that Meta marketed closely to maneuver them in that route. There was even a conspiracy principle that Meta had purchased TikTok within the hours earlier than TikTok went down, Wired reported, as customers seen Meta banners encouraging them to hyperlink their TikTok accounts to Meta platforms. Nevertheless, even the reported Meta advert blitz seemingly did not sway that many TikTok customers, as Sensor Tower information on the time apparently indicated that “Instagram and Fb appeared to obtain solely a modest improve in every day lively customers and downloads” through the TikTok outage, Wired reported.

Maybe a extra attention-grabbing query that the courtroom could entertain will not be the place TikTok customers go when TikTok is down, however the place Instagram or Fb customers flip in the event that they now not need to use these platforms. If the FTC can argue that individuals in search of a vacation spot to attach with pals or household would not substitute TikTok for that goal, their market definition would possibly fly.

Kenneth Dintzer, a accomplice at Crowell & Moring and the previous lead legal professional within the DOJ’s profitable Google search monopoly case, informed Ars that the chief choose within the case, James Boasberg, made clear at abstract judgment that acknowledging Meta’s rivalry with TikTok “would not actually reply the query about family and friends.”

So although Zuckerberg was “fairly persuasive,” his testimony on TikTok could not transfer the choose a lot. Nevertheless, there was one trade on the trial the place Boasberg requested, “How a lot does it matter if pals are on a specific platform, if pals can share outdoors of it?” Zuckerberg praised this as a “good query” and “defined that it doesn’t matter a lot as a result of folks can fluidly share throughout platforms, utilizing every one for its worth as a ‘discovery engine,'” Large Tech on Trial reported.