The news: Meta has closed out its defense in the FTC’s landmark antitrust trial, aimed at reversing its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

• Meta’s final witnesses included WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton and a former Instagram engineer, both testifying that Meta’s ownership helped these platforms flourish, reports The Verge.
• Meta leaned heavily on competitive pressure from TikTok during its defense, framing Reels as a necessary response to rising user demand for short-form video, per The Verge.
• Meanwhile, the FTC maintains that Meta’s control diminished product quality and weakened competition in social networking.
• Judge James Boasberg appeared skeptical of subjective quality metrics, pressing the FTC’s expert to justify claims that user experience declined while user counts rose.

Why it matters: At the heart of the trial is whether Meta unfairly maintained dominance in personal social networking—defined by the FTC to exclude platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

This matters not just for legal precedent, but for billions in future revenues. According to our forecasts: