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Zuckerberg stresses TikTok competition at Meta trial

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent his third day on the stand emphasizing the threat TikTok poses to his social media company, as Meta seeks to fend off accusations from federal regulators that it has a monopoly over social networking.

© Kent Nishimura, Bloomberg via Getty Images

Zuckerberg said Wednesday he considers TikTok the “highest competitive threat” that Facebook and Instagram have faced in the past few years.

Meta’s lead attorney, Mark Hansen, pointed to a 2020 email from former Facebook executive Vijaye Raji, who described TikTok’s growth as “worrying” and lamented the company’s strategy was “unfortunately not working fast enough.”

“While Reels V2 is aggressive and promising, we still have some concerns if it is sufficient to neutralize the threat,” Raji wrote of an early version of Meta’s short-form video format meant to compete with TikTok.

“TikTok in the US is a much bigger threat to our entire family of apps. And we need to put up a stronger assault,” he continued.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initially sued Meta in 2020, accusing the social media giant of seeking to eliminate competition and entrench its monopoly over personal social networking with its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta has argued that it does not have a monopoly, pointing to competition from other social media firms, such as TikTok, YouTube and X.

It contends that the FTC’s personal social networking market, which includes Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, fails to take into account other competitors because of its focus on platforms that connect friends and family.

Zuckerberg spent three days on the stand, including facing about nine hours of questioning by the FTC on Monday and Tuesday. He faced questions from Meta’s attorney Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning.

Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

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