The Federal Trade Commission held an antitrust investigative hearing this week, as a part of which, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to testify.
According to sources familiar with the case, the FTC isn't likely to pursue an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. The testimony was conducted under oath over the course of two days and would ultimately help the FTC and state attorneys general build a case against Facebook.
Earlier in July, Zuckerberg had testified before a House panel as part of an antitrust probe of the tech company and its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Original text messages shared between Zuckerberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, and between Systrom and a venture capitalist were read out loud, hence arising questions for Zuckerberg asking him if he threatened to copy rivals if they didn't agree to sell to the tech giant. In response, Zuckerberg denied claims of threatening Systrom.
The FTC later faced criticism for not interviewing Zuckerberg as part of an earlier investigation into the Cambridge Analytica scandal. FTC refused to say anything about its plan to interview the Facebook CEO in its antitrust probe. Chair Joe Simons, however, mentioned that seeking testimony under oath from Zuckerberg in its earlier privacy case was not necessary.
The probe was eventually settled with Facebook paying $5 billion and an independent committee that was set up to oversee Facebook's privacy decisions.
