TikTok poses ‘highly urgent’ threat to Meta – Zuckerberg

• Published On: 17 April 2025 at 19:41

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified Wednesday that TikTok constituted a significant danger to the company's supremacy, calling the short-form video app as a "top priority" and "highly urgent" competitive challenge when it first appeared in 2018.

According to Bloomberg and other sites, he made these remarks during the first week of the US Federal Trade Commission's antitrust trial against Meta.

If the FTC successfully demonstrates that Meta has unlawfully hindered competition, the high-profile litigation could force the firm to sell out important platforms like as Instagram or WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg admitted that TikTok's success had a direct impact on Meta's performance. "Our growth has slowed dramatically," he stated, referring to the period when TikTok's popularity skyrocketed. He said that the ByteDance-owned app has remained a key component of Meta's competitive strategy ever since.

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, acquired Musical.ly in 2017 and combined it with TikTok the following year, coinciding with a big shift at Meta. Around that time, the firm ceased providing Facebook-specific user figures in its financial releases and switched to a broader "family of apps" metric that included Instagram and WhatsApp.

The move was largely interpreted as an attempt to conceal declining growth in Meta's primary product.

During Wednesday's hearing, Zuckerberg also discussed changing dynamics in social media, stating that platforms now function more like "discovery engines" than tools for connecting with friends and family. "People can take that content to messaging engines," he stated, downplaying the significance of traditional "network effects."

Nonetheless, Zuckerberg stated that Meta is reconsidering its roots. In January, he told investors that a "return to OG Facebook" will be a top priority for 2025. In keeping with that purpose, Meta has added new features to help users reconnect with friends, such as an overhauled Friends tab that highlights requests and social engagement.