The Federal Trade Commission filed a notice on Tuesday appealing its loss in a lawsuit that accused Meta of breaking antitrust laws to protect a monopoly in social networking.
At a trial last year, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia considered the government’s claims that Meta snuffed out nascent competitors when it bought Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago. He ruled in November that Meta had not broken the law.
“Meta violated our antitrust laws when it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp,” an agency spokesman, Joe Simonson, said. “Thankfully for Americans, there is an appeal process.”
Meta did not immediately have a comment.
The F.T.C. is aiming to reverse a setback in the government’s campaign to rein in the power of the biggest tech companies. In the last two years, the government has won federal antitrust cases against Google, with judges saying the company has monopolies in online search and advertising technology. It has also sued Amazon and Apple over monopoly concerns.
Judge Boasberg’s six-week trial in the lawsuit against Meta featured testimony from witnesses including Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, and an Instagram founder, Kevin Systrom.
The government argued that Meta bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 to get rid of the threat posed by young competitors.
Judge Boasberg ruled in favor of Meta’s arguments that changes in social media, including the growth of TikTok and YouTube, undercut the government’s case about Meta’s dominance.
The F.T.C.’s notice of appeal on Tuesday, filed in the District Court, is preliminary. The agency will lay out its legal argument for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit at a later date.
David McCabe is a Times reporter who covers the complex legal and policy issues created by the digital economy and new technologies.
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