Judge Orders Meta to Deliver List of Social Media Features to FTC

Meta has until Aug. 22 to list its personal social networking features on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger so the FTC can better define the relevant market in its antitrust lawsuit against the company, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Monday in 1:20-cv-03590 before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (see 2201110071). Meta asked the court to compel the FTC to “more fully answer” whether certain features or activities available to platform users are within the definition of personal social networking. Meta “understandably seeks a clearer definition of what the FTC maintains is the personal-social-networking-services market,” Boasberg wrote. The FTC argued it sufficiently answered the question and will know more during discovery. Boasberg said a “middle ground” is the “wisest approach.” Meta is in a “much better” position than the agency to list each feature and activity, Boasberg said, ordering the company to produce the list. Meta “seems reasonable in asking the FTC to define the relevant market, given that its investigation has long since commenced,” he wrote. After Meta provides the list by Aug. 22, the FTC has until Sep. 22 to “inform Meta whether each such feature or activity is or is not within that definition,” Boasberg wrote. If the FTC changes its position on any of the items in the future, it can issue a supplemental response, he said.