The TikTok ban is back in court — in Meta’s antitrust trial
- TikTok has testified as a witness in Meta’s antitrust trial against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), reversing its previous role as defendant.
- The FTC is suing Meta over allegations of anti-competitive practices, and TikTok’s testimony provides insight into its own business practices and competition with Meta.
- TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, Adam Presser, explained how the company competes (or doesn’t) with Meta in the personal social networking market.
- The FTC has defined this market as containing only Meta’s services, Snapchat, and a small app called MeWe, which suggests that TikTok may not be directly competing with Meta in all areas.
- TikTok’s testimony comes ahead of the 2024 divest-or-ban law deadline, which requires ByteDance to sell its US business, and raises questions about the potential penalties for non-compliance.
TikTok is back in a Washington, DC courthouse discussing the US law that – at least on paper – effectively banned the app. But this time, it’s serving as a witness for the government, not fighting against it.
On Wednesday, TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety Adam Presser testified in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust trial against Meta, in the same courthouse where a panel of judges ruled that the government could expel TikTok from the country. Presser’s role in the Meta trial was to explain the ways in which TikTok competes (or doesn’t) with Meta’s services in a market the FTC has defined as personal social networking – a category the FTC says contains only Meta’s services, Snapchat, and a small app called MeWe.
Lawyers for both the FTC and Meta brought up filings TikTok made in its own litigation against the 2024 divest-or-ban law, which required Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US business. (President Donald Trump has used dubious legal measures to extend the deadline for enforcement twice, leaving TikTok’s service providers facing the potential for billions of dollars in penalties while saying he’s working on a deal.) The FTC pointed to a TikT …
Read the full story at The Verge.