Meta argues enshittification isn’t real in bid to toss FTC monopoly trial
Meta thinks there’s no reason to carry on with its defense after the Federal Trade Commission closed its monopoly case, and the company has moved to end the trial early by claiming that the FTC utterly failed to prove its case.
“The FTC has no proof that Meta has monopoly power,” Meta’s motion for judgment filed Thursday said, “and therefore the court should rule in favor of Meta.”
According to Meta, the FTC failed to show evidence that “the overall quality of Meta’s apps has declined” or that the company shows too many ads to users. Meta says that’s “fatal” to the FTC’s case that the company wielded monopoly power to pursue more ad revenue while degrading user experience over time (an Internet trend known as “enshittification”). And on top of allegedly showing no evidence of “ad load, privacy, integrity, and features” degradation on Meta apps, Meta argued there’s no precedent for an antitrust claim rooted in this alleged harm.
