WhatsApp Wasn’t Built to Challenge Facebook, Co-Founder Testifies in Meta Antitrust Case
WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has said the app never planned to become a social network. He testified to this in the Meta antitrust case during a court hearing on May 20 in Washington. Acton said WhatsApp had no interest in adding Facebook-like features, such as a news feed.
He stated that if WhatsApp had stayed independent, it could have continued using a subscription model. There would have been no need for targeted ads.
Acton’s comments came during the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust trial against Meta. The trial is in its sixth week. The FTC claims Meta created an illegal monopoly by buying Instagram and WhatsApp. It wants the company to be broken up.
WhatsApp Wasn’t Built to Challenge Facebook, Co-Founder Testifies in Meta Antitrust Case
Meta disagrees with the FTC. It says it faces strong competition from other companies like TikTok and Apple.
The FTC is focusing on Meta’s $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014. The agency argues that Meta saw WhatsApp as a rising competitor. At the time, WhatsApp was just a private messaging app, but the FTC says other messaging apps were adding social features.
The FTC also shared old emails and messages from Meta. In one from 2013, CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned the board about messaging apps turning into social networks.
Meta’s lawyers argue WhatsApp had no plan to do that. They showed a note from Acton that read, “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!” They also brought in former employees who said there were no plans for social features.
Acton was called to the stand by Meta to support this point.
When asked if Meta valued WhatsApp for its ad potential, Acton said he didn’t know. But he assumed ads were part of the calculation. He also admitted WhatsApp might have added more features if it had not been sold.
Acton said he was against Meta launching a business version of WhatsApp. He believed it would weaken the app’s privacy protections. This version was released after he left the company.
The FTC wants to prove that users were harmed by these deals. They argue that if WhatsApp and Instagram had remained independent, things would be different.
See Also: WhatsApp Brings AI-Powered Profile Photos and Group Icons to iOS
Meta’s lawyer asked Acton about the sale. He said Meta paid a fair price for WhatsApp. He also said the app’s subscription model was working well in 2014. Moreover, he believed WhatsApp could have made more money by increasing the subscription price.
Acton left Meta in 2018. He had made billions from the sale and is now worth $4.5 billion. But he later disagreed with Meta’s plans to run ads on WhatsApp.
He feared it would hurt user privacy. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Acton even tweeted “#DeleteFacebook.”
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