A pivotal moment in the U.S. antitrust trial against Meta occurred midway through over 10 hours of testimony from Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO. During his time on the witness stand last week, Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook and later rebranded it as Meta, was shown a seven-minute video of an interview he gave at a tech conference over a decade ago. The 40-year-old billionaire watched his 28-year-old self discuss how the world had “underestimated” his company in 2012. At that time, smartphones were emerging as a computing platform rather than being dominant, and Facebook was mainly used on desktops, facing competition from numerous startups. The older Zuckerberg winced as he recalled concerns about companies like Dropbox potentially becoming rivals in photo sharing, acknowledging that such fears now seem “pretty ridiculous.” This trial has revived memories of a different era marked by social apps, Silicon Valley arrogance, and Ivy League entrepreneurs. The case centers on the potential outcomes had Zuckerberg not acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, questioning whether these acquisitions stifled competition. Testimonies in Judge James E. Boasberg’s courtroom have brought back executives who have long since left Meta, such as Sheryl Sandberg and Kevin Systrom, and unearthed emails from over a decade ago.
— new from The New York Times