During his three days on the witness stand in Meta's landmark antitrust trial, Mark Zuckerberg faced over 10 hours of intense questioning from Federal Trade Commission attorneys. The high-profile case centers on allegations that Meta "helped cement" an illegal monopoly in social media through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago.1 If the FTC prevails, Meta could be forced to divest both platforms, potentially dismantling Zuckerberg's carefully constructed social media empire.

The trial revealed that Zuckerberg had anticipated potential antitrust issues years before the lawsuit. In a 2018 internal email presented as evidence, he wrote: "I wonder if we should consider the extreme step of spinning Instagram out as a separate company," acknowledging "a non-trivial chance that we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyway."1 The FTC's core argument focuses on Meta's alleged strategy of eliminating competition through acquisition rather than innovation, with lead attorney Daniel Matheson emphasizing in opening statements that while there's "nothing wrong with Meta innovating... it's what happened next that is a problem."23

In 2016, Facebook launched "Project Ghostbusters," a covert operation designed to intercept and decrypt encrypted traffic from Snapchat users at Mark Zuckerberg's direct request.12 The initiative, named after Snapchat's ghost logo, was developed after Zuckerberg expressed frustration about lacking analytics on the rapidly growing competitor, writing in an email: "Given how quickly they're growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them."1 The technology, developed by Facebook's Onavo team (a VPN service acquired in 2013), installed specialized "kits" on iOS and Android devices that could intercept traffic for specific subdomains, effectively performing a "man-in-the-middle" attack to access encrypted data.12

The surveillance program later expanded beyond Snapchat to include Amazon and YouTube user data.34 Not everyone at Facebook supported the initiative – Pedro Canahuati, then head of security engineering, expressed serious ethical concerns, stating: "I can't think of a good argument for why this is okay. No security person is ever comfortable with this, no matter what consent we get from the general public."15 The revelations came to light through documents unsealed in 2024 as part of a class action lawsuit alleging Facebook engaged in anticompetitive behavior and used deceptive practices to acquire user data.16

In 2013, Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel made the bold decision to reject Facebook's $6 billion acquisition offer, a move that stunned the tech world. Just 23 years old at the time, Spiegel reportedly received the offer directly from Mark Zuckerberg, who wrote in an email, "I delivered the offer to Evan and he seemed to take it well... He told me he thought he could get it done and that he'd call me back quickly."12 Despite the hefty sum—which represented nearly 7.5 times Snapchat's $800 million valuation at the time—Spiegel believed in his platform's independent potential and future growth trajectory.3

The rejection has had a rollercoaster aftermath for Snapchat. The company's valuation has fluctuated dramatically over the years, peaking at approximately $130 billion in late 2021 before falling to around $15.8 billion by 2025.34 Responding to Zuckerberg's trial testimony, Snap spokesperson Monique Bellamy defended the decision, stating that "anticompetitive behavior can often slow and thwart growth for smaller companies" and that "Meta's attempt to buy Snap, and then egregiously copy its features, was an attempt to do just that."56 Despite the volatility, Snapchat has maintained its position as a significant competitor in the social media landscape, with 422 million daily active users worldwide.3