Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom testified as part of the FTC’s antitrust case against Meta, saying Mark Zuckerberg saw Instagram as a threat to Facebook and therefore starved his photo-sharing app of resources after acquiring it more than a decade ago.
After being asked by an FTC lawyer why he thought Zuckerberg decided to give Instagram less resources, Systrom replied that the Facebook co-founder thought the photo-sharing app was a threat to his social media platform, according to a report by the New York Times.
“Mark was not investing in Instagram because he believed we were a threat to their growth,” Systrom, who was still the head of Instagram after the app was acquired, said during his more than six-hour testimony on Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Washington, DC.
“He was always very happy to have Instagram in the family because it was growing so quickly, and we did great product work,” Systrom continued.
“But also, I think as the founder of Facebook, he felt a lot of emotion around which one was better, meaning Instagram or Facebook,” the Instagram co-founder said, adding, “I think there were real human emotional things going on there.”
The FTC claims that the social media giant sought to establish an illegal monopoly, in part, by acquiring Instagram in 2012 as part of a “buy-or-bury strategy” to unlawfully eliminate its rivals.
In the case, which entered its second week on Monday, the FTC claims Meta’s acquisitions of companies — like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 — hurt competition by wiping out start-ups that could have challenged Zuckerberg’s domination of the social media market, and thus, allowed him to create an illegal monopoly.
The trial has also included emails showcasing Systrom’s frustration with Meta “starving” Instagram of resources. In one email, former Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer wrote, “We also have areas that are ‘starving’” for funds, according to a report by Fortune.
As Breitbart News reported, the government’s case — which began in 2020 under the Trump administration and continued under President Biden’s antitrust team — seeks to force Meta to divest both Instagram and WhatsApp, which each boast over two billion active users.
Meta claims that the FTC’s case is “weak,” writing: “More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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