An American judge has requested data from TikTok, WeChat and Telegram on behalf of Meta, parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. According to Meta, this should show that the company does not have a monopoly and therefore does not need to be split up.
The judge has therefore sent letters to a Chinese ministry for data from TikTok and WeChat, while for Telegram it has written a letter to the Virgin Islands, reports Bloomberg† Meta had asked to collect evidence outside of the US for his social media monopoly case.
In addition to usage figures, the judge also asks the foreign ministries to request data from presentations that indicate competition with Meta platforms. This should show how the competition is between WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook and TikTok, WeChat and Telegram.
The case comes from the US Federal Trade Commission, which wants to force a split of Meta. The FTC wants Meta to split Instagram and WhatsApp from its parent company to promote competition in the social media market. Meta, then Facebook, bought Instagram and WhatsApp almost ten years ago.