Mark Zuckerberg may be forced to shut down or sell Instagram amid a crackdown by the US Federal Trade Commission. Meta is currently at the centre of a major anti-trust lawsuit linked to its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC has accused the social media giant of monopolising the personal social networking market and compliance measures may even include a complete divestment of Instagram and WhatsApp.
The trial began in mid-April with top executives including CEO mark Zuckerberg testifying in Washington. The FTC insists that Meta should not have been allowed to buy Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion two years later. The federal agency has called for these units to be cut off from the parent company. A legal filing by the FTC also called for a “divestiture of assets, divestiture or reconstruction of businesses (including, but not limited to, Instagram and/or WhatsApp)”.
Meta could be forced to sell Instagram and WhatsApp if the US FTC wins its antitrust case against the company. While a shutdown is unlikely, divestment now appears to be a very real possibility for the company. Such a verdict can reshape the entire social media landscape as well as disrupt Meta’s business model.
Such a sale will greatly impact the advertising business of Meta and hit its bottom-line. Instagram alone is projected to cover more than half of the company’s US ad revenue for 2025. A breakup could also lead to an increasingly competitive social media landscape — potentially benefitting smaller social media companies and consumers.