Great news for monopolists: If you successfully swat away regulators for long enough, a new approach might come along and disrupt your monopoly status after nearly a decade of unfettered domination of your domain, thus rendering you not a monopoly despite enjoying all the benefits of one.

On Tuesday, Judge James Boasberg ruled that Meta did not create an illegal monopoly for social media platforms by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, in part because competitors like TikTok have cropped up in the intervening period.

The case, which is five years in the making and comes 13 years after Facebook bought Instagram and 11 years since it bought WhatsApp, failed because, according to the judge, the Federal Trade Commission failed to prove that Meta currently holds a monopoly over the social med

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