Washington (AFP) – Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has made repeated visits to the White House as he tries to persuade US President Donald Trump to settle a major antitrust case before it goes to trial on April 14, US media reported. The case against Meta was filed in 2020 by the Federal Trade Commission and seeks to prove that the company formerly known as Facebook illegally acquired potential competitors, particularly Instagram and WhatsApp, to eliminate competitive threats.
The New York Times reported that Zuckerberg has visited Trump at both the White House and his Mar-a-Lago resort several times in recent weeks as he makes a last-ditch attempt to spare his company the seven- to eight-week trial. The trial is to take place in a Washington federal court, with Zuckerberg and former executive Sheryl Sandberg among those to take the stand. Contacted by AFP, a Meta spokesman said: “Mark’s continuing the meetings he’s been holding with the administration on American technology leadership.”
Since Trump took back the White House, Zuckerberg has courted the president with frequent visits and notable changes to corporate policies on matters like content moderation, aligning himself politically with the Republican administration. Zuckerberg has also bought a $23 million residence in the US capital in recent weeks as he steps up his lobbying of Trump.
The case from the FTC focuses on Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, with the US government alleging Meta made the purchases while operating an illegal monopoly in the US social networking market. It is seeking to force the company to divest from these platforms, but the final outcome could take years after appeals.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump has yet to decide whether the administration will settle with the company, which would be a highly unusual decision at this stage of the proceedings. Asked recently about his agency’s commitment to the case, Trump-appointed FTC chair Andrew Ferguson said his teams were “gearing up” for the trial. “This trial has been five years in the making, was started by President Trump in 2020 and we have the resources ready to go,” he added in comments to Bloomberg TV last month.
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