The FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Meta, focusing on Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp over a decade ago, kicked off in federal court Monday morning, and Mark Zuckerberg is testifying.A lawsuit that dates back to the first Trump term, originally brought by a coalition of states alon g with the Federal Trade Commission, accuses Meta of "anticompetitive behavior" in its now 13- and 11-year-old purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was likely hoping that all his ass-kissing of Trump the last year might get him out of this litigation, but it is still happening, and the court proceeding began Monday morning in Washington with now nationally known US District Judge James Boasberg presiding.As the New York Times explains, via legal experts, this case is likely to be an uphill climb for the FTC and its lawyers, in part because it seeks to unwind two acquisitions that the government itself approved over a decade ago — something that rarely happens. The case also requires the government to prove a hypothetical that can't really be proven, basically that Facebook/Meta would not have been able to thrive if it had not acquired Instagram and WhatsApp when it did."One of the most difficult things for antitrust laws to deal with is when industry leaders purchase small potential competitors," says Gene Kimmelman, a former member of the Obama administration’s Department of Justice, speaking to the Times. Kimmelman also points out that Facebook/Meta "bought many things that either didn’t pan out or were integrated. How are Instagram and WhatsApp different?"Meta put out a statement on its blog Sunday calling the FTC's case "weak," and adding that it "ignores how the market actually works and chases a theory that doesn’t hold up in the real world."The statement goes on to say that "billions of users enjoy" Instagram and WhatsApp every day for free, and that the apps themselves were not as successful before Meta bought and improved them."With features such as in-app messaging, live streaming, Stories and Reels, we have grown Instagram from a small app with an uncertain future into one that more than two billion monthly active users enjoy today, providing them with an engaging place to discover, connect and create," the company says.Indeed, as the Times' Mike Isaac recounts today, Facebook was widely mocked for paying $1 billion to acquire Instagram in 2012, largely because it was seen as a fairly basic app where people posted heavily filtered photos, and that was that — hardly much of a threat to Facebook, which was still dominant at the time."A billion dollars of money?" Jon Stewart said on The Daily Show when the story broke back then. "For a thing that kind of ruins your pictures?"But, of course, Instagram is now a dominant force in our lives, addicting millions to the habit of scrolling — alongside competitor TikTok. And the app is seen as far more than just a photo-sharing app, with video, integrated messaging, and a whole ton of ads to boot."These benefits would not have been achieved without Meta’s investment and the excellence of the thousands of Meta employees who have worked on them," the comapny says. "We also help hundreds of millions of businesses reach and engage with their customers, hire new employees and grow."But for the next eight weeks, the goverment's lawyers will present evidence that Facebook executives knew what they were doing when they made these key acquisitions, keeping these apps out of competitors hands and circling their wagons, so to speak, around a social media empire. And Meta's lawyers will argue that this was all just good business, and that it's insane to try to wind the clock back on this and engage in what-ifs.We do know that the government has what they call a "smoking gun" email from Zuckerberg himself in February 2012 in which he discusses the rising popularity of Instagram and the idea of "neutralizing a potential competitor."Meta's lawyers will also argue against what they say is a "gerrymandered a fictitious market" that the government has imagined in which "in which Facebook and Instagram compete only with Snapchat and an app called MeWe." It will not be hard to prove, they say, that TikTok and YouTube are also enormous competitors for user eyeballs, and that Meta, therefore, is no monopoly.There are a lot of headlines out today wondering what would happen if the government succeeded in the case and demanded the breakup of the company, but that seems fairly far-fetched.Google/Alphabet lost its own big antitrust case last year over its monopoly of the internet search business. And while the court's "remedy" is yet to be decided, it is likely not going to be anything so drastic — though the company may be asked to separate its advertising and search businesses.Previously: FTC and States Join Forces In Antitrust Lawsuits Against Facebook, Calling It an Illegal MonopolyTop image: Meta and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. 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