Meta wants its competitors to hand over sensitive data, to “prove” it’s not a monopoly

To defend an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Meta has made a brazen choice to subpoena 132 companies for competitively sensitive information. The companies, including Snap and TikTok, have filed complaints to challenge the subpoenas, claiming that Meta is using the lawsuit to get confidential information.

FTC filed the antitrust lawsuit in 2020, accusing Meta, then Facebook, of monopolizing the social networking market, through the acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. Meta claims it does not have a monopoly over the market, citing the success of Clubhouse and TikTok.

As reported by Bloomberg, Meta wants documents related to, “some of the most important and sensitive elements of how competitors do business,” including “how they acquire users, scale up products and make money from features.” The tech giant, which owns the largest social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, also wants documents on “rivals’ marketing and sales strategies, quality metrics, contact information for their biggest advertisers, and details on their efforts to attract users from competitors, among other secrets.”