A US federal judge has decided that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can proceed with its lawsuit against Meta which could see the giant broken up over alleged anti-competitive behavior.

The issue is the way Meta came to be “put together” – namely, the two acquisitions that added Instagram and WhatsApp to Facebook (in 2012 and 2014, respectively).

We obtained a copy of the ruling for you here.

The allegations against Meta hinge on the fact it chose to spend record amounts of money (the FTC believes, intentionally overpay) for the two platforms.