On Thursday, Anthropic unveiled specialized AI models designed for US national security customers. The company released "Claude Gov" models that were built in response to direct feedback from government clients to handle operations such as strategic planning, intelligence analysis, and operational support. The custom models reportedly already serve US national security agencies, with access restricted to those working in classified environments.

The Claude Gov models differ from Anthropic's consumer and enterprise offerings, also called Claude, in several ways. They reportedly handle classified material, "refuse less" when engaging with classified information, and are customized to handle intelligence and defense documents. The models also feature what Anthropic calls "enhanced proficiency" in languages and dialects critical to national security operations.

Anthropic says the new models underwent the same "safety testing" as all Claude models. The company has been pursuing government contracts as it seeks reliable revenue sources, partnering with Palantir and Amazon Web Services in November to sell AI tools to defense customers.

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Senate Commerce Republicans have kept a ten year moratorium on state AI laws in their latest version of President Donald Trump's massive budget package. And a growing number of lawmakers and civil society groups warn that its broad language could put consumer protections on the chopping block.

Republicans who support the provision, which the House cleared as part of its "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," say it will help ensure AI companies aren't bogged down by a complicated patchwork of regulations. But opponents warn that should it survive a vote and a congressional rule that might prohibit it, Big Tech companies could be exempted from state legal guardrails for years to come, without any promise of federal standards to take their place.

"What this moratorium does is prevent every state in the country from having basic regulations to protect workers and to protect consumers," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), whose district includes Silicon Valley, tells The Verge in an interview. He warns that as written, the language included in the House-passed budget reconciliation package could restrict state laws that attempt to regulate social media companies, prevent algorithmic rent discrimination, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

On Thursday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued against a proposed 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation in a New York Times opinion piece, calling the measure shortsighted and overbroad as Congress considers including it in President Trump's tax policy bill. Anthropic makes Claude, an AI assistant similar to ChatGPT.

Amodei warned that AI is advancing too fast for such a long freeze, predicting these systems "could change the world, fundamentally, within two years; in 10 years, all bets are off."

As we covered in May, the moratorium would prevent states from regulating AI for a decade. A bipartisan group of state attorneys general has opposed the measure, which would preempt AI laws and regulations recently passed in dozens of states.

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EchoStar is skipping interest payments even as it commissions a new Dish TV satellite — citing “uncertainty” caused by a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) probe. 

The company just missed a $183 million interest payment, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. It missed another $326 million interest payment, Bloomberg reported on Friday. It’s potentially setting itself up for bankruptcy protection, SpaceNews reports.

It’s potentially setting itself up for bankruptcy protection

While those payments are on hold, EchoStar, which Dish Network rejoined last year, is still investing in its TV business. It commissioned a new communications satellite for television, Maxar Space Systems announced yesterday. The satellite, EchoStar XXVI, is supposed to be completed by 2028 to support Dish TV coverage across 50 US states and Puerto Rico. 

The FCC is investigating whether EchoStar is hitting requirements to deploy 5G that it’s supposed to meet in order to keep its spectrum licenses. Dish Network merged back with EchoStar — which also owns Boost Mobile — to try to compete in 5G, with the goal of trying to become a competitor with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. The FCC probe has led EchoStar to “freeze its decision-making” for Boost Mobile, the Wall Street Journal reports.

SpaceX is also a rival vying with EchoStar for spectrum licenses in the 2 GHz band. Elon Musk’s company conducted its own analysis of Dish’s cellular signals and called EchoStar’s use of the gigahertz band “de minimis at best” in an April filing to the FCC. EchoStar accused SpaceX of a “land grab” for spectrum the Wall Street Journal reported last month. 

Neither Dish Network nor EchoStar responded immediately to a request for comment from The Verge.

On August 5th, 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled in the case of United States of America v. Google, saying, “…the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

That ended the biggest tech antitrust trial since the US took on Microsoft in the 1990s — possibly aside from the government’s antitrust case targeting Google’s ad business — but it’s also just the start of the process. Now, lawyers for Google and the Department of Justice are arguing over the ruling, as well as what to do about the company and its products.

The DOJ argued that Google struck anticompetitive deals with Apple and other companies for prime placement of its search engine. Google maintains that its dominant market share is the result of a superior product. The DOJ says options to resolve the situation include breaking up Google to separate products like Chrome, Search, and Android, but it may be a while until we hear about their full plan.

Read on below for all of the updates and notes from the case.

• Break time.
• “Our remedies are tied to barriers to entry.”
• Google is still the best search engine for Apple, says attorney.
• AI is back up for debate.
• Judge Mehta: is there a middle ground on data-sharing?
• “By definition, network effects crowd out competition,” says Mehta.
• Google lawyer: “Was anybody clamoring to preload Bing on these devices?”
• Google’s lawyer is up.
• Lots of AI questions to the DOJ.
• “Google’s self-reinforcing monopoly machine.”
• Closing arguments in the Google search antitrust trial.
• Google rejected giving publishers more choice to opt out of AI Search
• Eddy Cue is fighting to save Apple’s $20 billion paycheck from Google
• Apple’s Eddy Cue: ‘You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now’
• Google searches are falling in Safari for the first time ever — probably because of AI
• Apple is looking at adding Perplexity and other AI search engines to Safari
• DOJ’s proposed Google changes would ‘deeply undermine user trust,’ search chief says
• Publisher opt-outs of AI training cut Google’s DeepMind training data in half.
• Firefox could be doomed without Google search deal, says executive
• Sundar Pichai says the DOJ’s antitrust plan could kill Google Search
• Google confirms it’s close to getting Gemini support on iPhones
• Tough day in court for Google Plus and Google Buzz.
• Sundar Pichai says the remedies against Google would be a crushing blow.
• It’s Sundar time in US v. Google.
• Chrome could suffer apart from Google, says Google.
• Google is paying Samsung an ‘enormous sum’ to preinstall Gemini
• Why are companies lining up to buy Chrome?
• Yahoo wants to buy Chrome
• Perplexity wants to buy Chrome if Google has to sell it
• Money, Chrome, and ChatGPT: The high stakes of Google’s monopoly trial
• The Department of Justice really, really wants Google to sell Chrome.
• The future of Google Search is back in court.
• Google is in more danger than ever of being broken up
• Google agrees to let employees talk about its Search antitrust trial.
• Trump’s DOJ still says Google should be broken up
• DOJ says it will let Google pay Apple for services unrelated to search.
• Apple’s attempt to intervene in the Google Search antitrust trial is denied
• Apple asks court to halt Google search monopoly case
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai tells employees to expect a hard 2025.
• Eddy Cue explains why Apple won’t make a search engine
• Apple would like to step in to defend its Google search deal.
• Google to court: we’ll change our Apple deal, but please let us keep Chrome
• Google’s counteroffer to the government trying to break it up is unbundling Android apps
• Breaking down the DOJ’s plan to end Google’s search monopoly
• Google responds to DOJ’s ‘extreme proposal.’
• DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly
• Google workers to DOJ: we need protections to make your breakup effective
• Could Chrome be ready to Rumble?
• US lawyers will reportedly try to force Google to sell Chrome and unbundle Android
• Google is replacing the exec in charge of Search and ads
• How the DOJ wants to break up Google’s search monopoly
• A Google breakup is on the table, say DOJ lawyers
• The DOJ will have its proposed plan to deal with Google’s monopoly soon.
• The DOJ wants info on Google’s AI strategy to bust up its search monopoly
• Yelp sues Google for antitrust violations
• What Google rivals want after the DOJ’s antitrust trial win
• Google lost its first antitrust case, so what happens next?
• ‘There’s no price’ Microsoft could pay Apple to use Bing: all the spiciest parts of the Google antitrust ruling
• Now that Google is a monopolist, what’s next?
• Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case
• Well, that’s an interesting name for it.
• As Google’s antitrust trial wraps, DOJ seeks sanctions over missing messages
• Multibillion-dollar Apple deal looms large in Google antitrust trial
• Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be Safari’s default search engine.
• A Google witness let slip just how much it pays Apple for Safari search
• ‘Android is a massive tracking device.’
• Here’s a rare look at Google’s most lucrative search queries
• Sundar Pichai argues in court that Google isn’t evil, it’s just a business
• Google agreed to not promote Chrome to Safari users.
• Google once asked Apple to preload its search app on iOS
• It’s Internet Explorer day in US v. Google!
• Hello again from DC District Court!
• Google paid a whopping $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine everywhere
• “Chrome exists to serve Google search.”
• Sundar Pichai will testify in US v. Google on Monday.
• Google reportedly pays $18 billion a year to be Apple’s default search engine
• The Google antitrust trial has been frustratingly locked down — the NYT just filed a motion to open it up
• Read Sundar Pichai’s full email conversation about the Apple-Google deal.
• The Google trial shows that Apple’s search deal is the most important contract in tech
• Back in 2007, Sundar Pichai thought Google shouldn’t be Safari’s only search option.
• Details of Apple’s talks to replace Google with Bing and even DuckDuckGo revealed in unsealed court testimony
• Today on The Vergecast: Big Tech goes to court.
• Satya Nadella tells a court that Bing is worse than Google — and Apple could fix it
• An hour-long history lesson about Microsoft’s many failures in mobile.
• Microsoft doesn’t think AI is going to upend search competition – it thinks it could get even more locked-down.
• Satya Nadella says Bing was prepared to lose billions just to be Apple’s search default.
• Good morning from DC District Court!
• One of the documents Google wanted hidden in its trial compared the search ads business to “cigarettes or drugs.”
• Satya Nadella is testifying in US v. Google next week.
• The Google antitrust trial is opening back up… a little
• Apple defends Google Search deal in court: ‘There wasn’t a valid alternative’
• Would Safari have been popular without its Google integration?
• Should Apple add a search engine choice screen to the iPhone setup process?
• Apple’s Eddy Cue says there’s really no “valid alternative to Google.”
• The US v. Google court is starting in closed session today. Again.
• Today’s an important day in US v. Google.
• Apple’s Eddy Cue will take the stand Tuesday in the Google antitrust trial
• The Google antitrust trial is still maddeningly locked-down.
• Clickbait? In my antitrust trial?
• Here are the documents the Google antitrust trial judge didn’t want you to see
• Okay, can we see Google trial documents or not?
• Will US v. Google evidence stay public? We still don’t know.
• Justice Department and Google spar over public access to antitrust trial files
• Google quietly raised ad prices to boost search revenue, says executive
• US v. Google, Week Two begins.
• In the Google antitrust trial, defaults are everything and nobody likes Bing
• Breaking down the Google antitrust trial.
• Opening arguments in US v. Google just ended! Only ten weeks left to go.
• “We don’t have good data on actual user switching.”
• Bing is already Google’s punching bag for the trial.
• There’s still an ads case inside this search case against Google.
• What makes a search engine a search engine?
• 50 percent of Google searches allegedly come through a paid-for default deal.
• “Defaults matter, but they’re not determinative.”
• The antitrust trial against Google Search starts today — here’s what to expect
• How Google plans to win its antitrust trial

For five weeks, the Federal Trade Commission asked a federal judge to imagine a world where Instagram and WhatsApp flourished outside Meta's control instead of being acquired by the tech giant. In the sixth and final week of trial, Meta asked Judge James Boasberg to consider that actually, these apps might be as good as they can get.

Meta rested its case Wednesday after a brief four days in court (many of its witnesses were also called by the FTC, so it already had the chance to question them in prior weeks). In those final days, Meta called on WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton and an early Instagram infrastructure executive to explain how Meta helped those apps grow in ways they'd be unlikely to otherwise - countering testimony from Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom, who claimed Meta withheld resources to help the app grow and become safer, and believed Instagram would have still been a hit on its own.

Meta argues that far from becoming competitors that checked Meta's power, Instagram and WhatsApp might have withered, remaining far less useful or accessible to consumers than they are today.

Several Meta witnesses also called out the elephant in the room: TikTok. The FTC says tha …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum Friday afternoon directing the Department of Energy to “consider using all lawful authority to rescind” or weaken regulations for water and energy efficiency for dishwashers and washing machines. The action also includes water use standards for showers, faucets, toilets, and urinals.

It closes out a week of attacks on policies meant to save Americans money by incentivizing manufacturers to make products that save water and energy. Earlier in the week, CNN and E&E News reported that the Trump administration would shutter the Energy Star program as part of a “reorganization” planned at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Energy Star certifies products for energy efficiency, allowing consumers to choose the most energy-efficient home appliances by spotting the recognizable blue Energy Star label. The rules President Trump is targeting now are actually consumer protections, meant to ensure that any customer can purchase something that meets reasonable efficiency standards.

“Congress enacted these laws, the president can’t just decide that they’re going to go away.”

A White House fact sheet says the Secretary of Energy should work with the Office of Legislative Affairs to make recommendations to Congress on any water pressure “or related energy efficiency laws” that ought to change or be repealed altogether.

It also says the Secretary of Energy should pause enforcement of the rules mentioned in the memorandum until they’re rescinded or revised. “The Federal Government should not impose or enforce regulations that make taxpayers’ lives worse,” the presidential memorandum says.

“It’ll only raise costs for consumers to get rid of these standards, if they get rid of these standards,” says Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. “Congress enacted these laws, the president can’t just decide that they’re going to go away.” deLaski also notes that while the White House says it wants to get rid of “useless water pressure standards,” the rules mentioned in the memorandum actually target efficiency standards since water pressure depends on the plumbing system connected to the device. 

Trump also signed four bills approved through the Congressional Review Act undoing Biden-era efficiency standards for water heaters, refrigerators, walk-in coolers, and more. In April, the president signed an executive order to purportedly make “America’s showers great again” by rescinding an Obama-era definition of showerheads that raised efficiency standards.  

Update, May 10th: This story has been updated with more information about water pressure from Andrew deLaski.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced plans to rescind and replace a Biden-era rule regulating the export of high-end AI accelerator chips worldwide, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.

A Department of Commerce spokeswoman told Reuters that officials found the previous framework "overly complex, overly bureaucratic, and would stymie American innovation" and pledged to create "a much simpler rule that unleashes American innovation and ensures American AI dominance."

The Biden administration issued the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion in January during its final week in office. The regulation represented the last salvo of a four-year effort to control global access to so-called "advanced" AI chips (such as GPUs made by Nvidia), with a focus on restricting China's ability to obtain tech that could enhance its military capabilities.

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When Adam Mosseri took over Meta-owned Instagram as CEO in 2018, the app was experiencing what he'd later call "concerning" drops and plateaus in user engagement, thanks partly to fierce competition from a new app: TikTok. Instagram estimated in 2019 that 23 percent of the decline in time spent on Instagram in the US was due to TikTok. Bytedance's video app kept expanding through the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. "We can't explain it all, but what's clear at this point is that we need to adapt, and do so quickly," Mosseri wrote to his team in March 2020. Instagram needed to recover, he testified Thursday in a DC courtroom, because "you're either growing, or you're slowly dying."

Mosseri described the dire situation while testifying in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust trial against Meta, where the government alleges the company illegally monopolized the market for personal social networking services, a category that it says includes Snapchat but not more entertainment-focused apps like YouTube or TikTok. Mosseri's testimony highlighted how much Instagram sees itself as in competition with TikTok, but it also showed that even as entertainment content becomes a larger port …

Read the full story at The Verge.

If you’ve been harboring complaints about Ticketmaster, now’s the time to let it all out. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are inviting the public to submit comments about harmful practices in live ticketing as part of efforts to “identify unfair and anticompetitive” behavior in the industry.

In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to address unfair practices in the ticketing industry, such as scalpers using bots to buy up massive amounts of tickets. He directed the FTC and DOJ to enforce competition laws, as well as file a report about their progress within six months. The agencies plan to use the public comments to inform their recommendations.

Ticketmaster has been under closer regulatory scrutiny after its site crashed when Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets went on sale in November 2022, sparking outrage among fans and even Swift herself. The DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, last year, claiming their illegal monopoly results in higher ticket prices for consumers.

You can submit your comments about the live ticketing industry on the Regulations.gov website from now until July 7th.

“We will continue to closely examine this market and look for opportunities where vigorous enforcement of the antitrust laws can lead to increased competition that makes tickets more affordable for fans while offering fairer compensation for artists,” Abigail Slater, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s antitrust division, said in the press release.

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Executives like OpenAI's Sam Altman said US support for infrastructure would make it easier for AI companies to meet demand.Read More

The long-awaited antitrust trial between Meta and the Federal Trade Commission kicked off on April 14th. Over about two months, DC District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg is hearing arguments about whether then-Facebook illegally monopolized the market for “personal social networking services” through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

The FTC first brought the case in late 2020. While it was initially thrown out by the judge, he let an amended version move forward after the government beefed up details about why it thinks Meta is a monopoly. This phase of the trial will help the judge determine if Meta is liable for breaking antitrust law. If he finds that to be true, he’ll later rule on how those harms should be remedied. The FTC is pushing for Instagram and WhatsApp should be spun off.

This is the third US trial seeking to break up Big Tech in recent years, following the Justice Department’s two separate cases against Google over its search and ad tech businesses.

Read below for all of our updates on the FTC v. Meta case.

• Court adjourns for the day.
• Cuts to Instagram’s growth staffing came ‘out of the blue,’ Systrom wrote.
• Meta supercharged Instagram’s growth, its former product chief says.
• Messenger exec was ‘not at all’ concerned about WhatsApp becoming a major competitor.
• ‘We’re all terrified.’
• People don’t come to TikTok to connect with real-life friends.
• Meta has grown despite the threat of TikTok.
• Meta throws a jab at Apple over its developer policies.
• Focusing on friends and family wasn’t a great strategy for Meta.
• Ads aren’t a huge cost for users.
• ‘Very little interest’ in Meta’s ad-free subscription in Europe.
• Users don’t really notice when Meta shows them more ads.
• Apple’s privacy changes let users block Meta from tracking them off-app.
• Would Instagram have collected less user data without Meta?
• Meta’s chief revenue officer is up next.
• Users don’t actually want a chronological feed.
• Meta saw a ‘precipitous decline’ in user sentiment after its speech policy changes.
• Media events can impact how users feel about Meta, even if the product doesn’t change.
• House Republicans drop their bid to strip the FTC’s antitrust authority.
• Cambridge Analytica had the ‘most extreme to date’ impact on how users feel about Meta.
• Keeping up with friends is important to Facebook users.
• The TikTok ban is back in court — in Meta’s antitrust trial
• Does Meta care about its users?
• Reworking ByteDance’s systems for a US-only TikTok would be costly.
• The TikTok ban makes another cameo.
• TikTok predicted Instagram would redesign its app to focus on Reels.
• Are YouTube and Instagram the top competitors for TikTok?
• TikTok and Reels are ‘indistinguishable.’
• TikTok’s friends tab is not exactly a hit.
• TikTok’s legal entanglements collide.
• Reels isn’t Instagram’s ‘core’ experience.
• TikTok doesn’t compete with Meta for ‘personal social networking.’
• TikTok’s head of operations takes the stand.
• Yahoo once paid $1 billion for an unprofitable tech startup, too.
• Tumblr’s former CTO tells the court about fandoms.
• Apple lists its messages app under social networking.
• Apple hasn’t considered putting ads in its messaging app.
• ‘Who are all these people?’
• An Apple iMessage exec is up next.
• Meta prepared for a ‘flood in traffic’ ahead of the TikTok ban.
• It’s now ‘extremely easy’ to build a social graph from scratch.
• ‘We wanted it to be one of the biggest apps in the world.’
• Facebook didn’t fear WhatsApp becoming a social competitor.
• Cambridge Analytica hit Facebook’s reputation, but its user numbers saw less impact.
• Meta was willing to sacrifice some Instagram growth to grow the whole pie.
• Facebook worried most about Google or Apple buying WhatsApp.
• Google had a ‘long shot’ chance of becoming competitive in social with WhatsApp.
• Facebook didn’t know how it would make money from WhatsApp.
• Facebook floated starting from scratch on messaging.
• WhatsApp showed ‘absolutely no signs of morphing’ into a social app.
• Facebook exec worried about losing the business to mobile messaging apps.
• ‘I was really worried that this could become the end.’
• ‘This shit is getting scary.’
• Meta COO Javier Olivan kicks off day 10 of trial.
• More cloud talk.
• An AWS exec testifies about how startups can scale with its cloud.
• Facebook execs worried Google would buy WhatsApp and make it ‘a cross-platform iMessage.’
• Pinterest once saw Instagram as an ‘existential threat.’
• Smaller apps don’t need Meta to keep users safe.
• Pinterest is a ‘lifestyle’ app.
• Pinterest’s former head of user growth is up next.
• Reddit doesn’t think it’s a social networking platform.
• Users also post workout content on Facebook and Instagram.
• You won’t find baby photos on Strava.
• A former Strava executive is testifying about its social platform.
• Twitter wasn’t really about sharing with friends and family.
• ‘I can’t believe that’s on the website.’
• Twitter chose to focus on a different use case from Facebook.
• It’s not all about competing for attention.
• Judge Boasberg is getting schooled on how X works.
• An X product executive who built Community Notes is on the stand.
• Here’s who’s closing out Meta’s second week of trial.
• Taking a brief break to tune into the Google search remedies trial.
• Facebook is distinct from other popular social media apps.
• Shutting down Facebook Camera was ‘unrelated to Instagram.’
• Facebook Camera didn’t directly compete with Instagram.
• ‘Facebook squashes competition.’
• Facebook was urgently working on an Instagram competitor months before the deal.
• A former product manager for Facebook’s defunct camera app is testifying.
• Instagram co-founder: Zuckerberg saw us as a ‘threat’ to Facebook
• Kevin Systrom is finished testifying.
• Instagram had its own trust and safety team for what Meta wouldn’t prioritize.
• Becoming part of Meta was a ‘mixed bag’ for Instagram.
• Instagram’s probability of failing without Meta’s help was ‘low.’
• Systrom says Zuckerberg got a ‘screaming deal’ by paying $1 billion for Instagram.
• Negotiating or misleading?
• ‘Sir:’ Systrom resists Meta’s spin on his testimony.
• Systrom explains the importance of network effects.
• Meta made a list of features that helped Instagram and then cut them.
• Zuckerberg had ‘real human’ emotions about Instagram’s growth.
• ‘We were a threat to their growth.’
• Meta cut growth resources to Instagram.
• Zuckerberg wouldn’t give Instagram more integrity staff after Cambridge Analytica.
• Twitter limited Instagram’s integration ‘in direct retaliation’ to Facebook.
• Apple, Google, and Twitter were interested in buying Instagram.
• Systrom pitched ads for Instagram before it was acquired.
• Instagram didn’t have Twitter’s ‘fail whale’ problem.
• Instagram could have added video and messaging without Meta’s help.
• Instagram’s growth didn’t slow until after its first year at Meta.
• It was hard to keep up with Instagram’s early growth.
• Systrom recounts Instagram’s origins as Burbn.
• Kevin Systrom takes the stand.
• Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom takes the stand tomorrow.
• Meta execs discussed whether WhatsApp could ‘wedge’ its way into social media.
• ‘It wasn’t obvious you could make a great return’ by paying as much as Meta did for Instagram.
• Sequoia believed it could have helped Instagram grow independently.
• ‘It was catching lightning in a bottle’ to invest in Instagram.
• Instagram investor testifies about the app’s growth before Meta’s acquisition.
• Putting ads on WhatsApp ‘was not even a discussion point’ before Meta bought it.
• Meta wanted WhatsApp to sign a ‘no shop’ agreement.
• Former Google exec testifies about the company’s attempt to buy WhatsApp.
• Meta is digging through the FTC expert’s personal blog.
• Meta is trying to discredit the FTC’s expert.
• WhatsApp could have threatened Facebook if Google acquired it.
• Judge asks why it’s ‘laughable’ that WhatsApp’s investors could force an ad model.
• WhatsApp likely would have expanded into social networking, even though its founders resisted it.
• Instagram and WhatsApp were ‘highly likely to be successful’ without Meta.
• Meta is starting its second week of trial against the FTC.
• The government doesn’t understand Meta
• Meta gets a Friday breather.
• Big Tech is back on trial
• Does Google think Meta is its competition?
• YouTube strugged with adding social features.
• The FTC calls Google’s Aaron Filner as its next witness.
• Meta didn’t overpay for WhatsApp, according to the app’s investor.
• WhatsApp’s founders ‘shot down’ suggestions of adding social features.
• Facebook considered ad-free subscriptions after the Cambridge Analytica scandal
• Sequoia tried to get WhatsApp to skirt Zuckerberg’s advances.
• Zuckerberg was ‘very concerned’ that Tencent wanted to buy WhatsApp.
• Plenty of companies were interested in WhatsApp before Facebook bought it.
• Sequoia is ‘dramatically better off’ when the startups it backs go public, rather than get acquired.
• WhatsApp investor Sequoia saw Facebook as the app’s ‘most significant threat.’
• Sandberg is done testifying.
• Meta considered a subscription model to address Cambridge Analytica backlash.
• TikTok’s rise lowered Meta’s revenue forecast.
• The FTC’s view of how Meta’s ads work ‘doesn’t make any sense.’
• Ads can be ‘as good as content.’
• Sandberg is back on the stand to kick off day four of trial.
• Zuckerberg tells court he made WhatsApp and Instagram better
• Sandberg says she was wrong about Meta paying too much for Instagram.
• Meta’s network effects hasn’t protected it from competition.
• Cambridge Analytica didn’t impact Meta’s engagement metrics.
• Meta was focused on Instagram’s quality, not its competitive impact.
• The rise of Google Plus was a ‘rallying the troops’ moment.
• Ex-COO Sheryl Sandberg takes the stand.
• Zuckerberg is done testifying.
• Zuckerberg defends his decision to put more ads on Instagram.
• Google, Apple, and Snap aren’t happy about Meta’s poorly-redacted slides
• Buying TikTok’s precursor would have been ‘too complicated’ because of its China ties.
• Zuckerberg’s testimony gives the court his vision of the future.
• Zuckerberg on buying WhatsApp: ‘I’d do it again.’
• WhatsApp’s founders had limited aspirations.
• Meta wasn’t too worried about WhatsApp becoming a rival.
• Zuckerberg can’t rule out that Instagram would have succeeded on its own.
• Instagram grew far larger than Zuckerberg ever imagined.
• Zuckerberg flatly denies that he bought Instagram to squash it.
• ‘Only the paranoid survive.’
• ChatGPT’s image generation gets a shoutout.
• AI is solving Meta’s ‘negative network effects’ problem.
• ‘I don’t like it when our competitors do better than us.’
• Zuckerberg: TikTok slowed Meta’s growth ‘dramatically.’
• Apple, Google, and Snap accuse Meta of being reckless with their confidential info.
• Zuckerberg’s wildest ideas in Meta’s history
• Meta reportedly offered $1 billion to settle the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit.
• We’re done with day two of Zuckerberg’s testimony.
• Your Honor, we sell ads.
• ‘What is MeWe?’
• Zuckerberg takes an opportunity to jab the EU.
• Meta doesn’t ‘optimize directly’ for time spent on its platform.
• Meta’s antitrust trial slide redactions aren’t actually hiding anything
• The FTC is done questioning Zuckerberg for now.
• The FTC is trying to pin Zuckerberg down on its market definition.
• Mark Zuckerberg once suggested wiping all Facebook friends lists to boost usage
• Zuckerberg sees LinkedIn as competition.
• Mark Zuckerberg suggested spinning off Instagram
• Zuckerberg offered to buy Snapchat for $6 billion.
• Meta discussed having a feed that only contains ads.
• Zuckerberg’s ‘crazy idea’ to reset everyone Facebook’s friends to zero.
• People like ads, actually?
• After Snapchat turned Zuckerberg down, he worried about the rise of Stories.
• Zuckerberg: Snapchat would have grown faster with us.
• Meta was worried about early messaging apps expanding into its business.
• Meta considered blocking rival messaging app ads.
• ‘A billion dollars is very expensive.’
• Settlers of Catan makes a cameo.
• Zuckerberg downplays that he wanted to buy Instagram to ‘neutralize a potential competitor.’
• We’re here for day two of the FTC v. Meta trial.
• Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand
• Here’s how the FTC began its case against Meta.
• A slow start to the trial.
• Facebook considered keeping Instagram alive to keep ‘everyone from hating us.’
• ‘I wonder if we should consider buying Instagram.’
• Facebook had interns working on its Instagram competitor.
• Zuckerberg’s testimony trudges through years of social media history.
• “Mission accomplished.”
• Mark Zuckerberg takes the stand.
• Here are the slides Meta used to lay out its defense.
• Facebook and Instagram traffic surged when TikTok went down.
• Meta slams FTC’s ‘grab bag’ case as ‘at war with the facts, and at war with the law.’
• FTC previews evidence that Meta allegedly sought to extinguish Instagram and WhatsApp as threats.
• We’re at the courthouse where Meta is facing its existential antitrust trial.
• Meta goes to trial to avoid a breakup of Instagram and WhatsApp
• FTC chair says he’d ‘obey lawful orders’ if Trump asked to drop an antitrust case like Meta’s
• Judge says the FTC’s Meta monopoly lawsuit can go forward
• Federal court dismisses FTC’s bid to unwind Instagram from Facebook
• The FTC is suing Facebook to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp

After a stinging rebuke in the lower courts over its legal battle with Epic, Apple filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit on Monday. The appeal will challenge last week’s ruling that prevents the company from charging developers fees on purchases made outside the App Store.

In 2021, the Epic v. Apple lawsuit resulted in a court order enjoining Apple from anti-steering activities — that is, hindering developers from telling users to make purchases outside of the app. The case was revived last year when Epic Games alleged that Apple had violated that court order. 

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers not only agreed with Epic Games but also found that Apple’s Vice President of Finance, Alex Roman, had lied under oath and referred the matter to the district’s federal prosecutor for potential criminal investigation. The judge additionally sanctioned Apple for “misuse of attorney-client privilege designations to delay proceedings.”

Testimony this week from Google’s antitrust trial shows that Google gives Samsung an “enormous sum of money” each month to preinstall the Gemini AI app on Samsung devices, reports Bloomberg. Now that Judge Amit Mehta has ruled Google’s search engine is an illegal monopoly, its lawyers are sparring with the DOJ over how severe a potential penalty should be.

Peter Fitzgerald, Google’s vice president of platforms and device partnerships, testified on Monday that Google’s payments to Samsung started in January. That’s after Google was found to have violated antitrust law, partially due to similar arrangements with Apple, Samsung, and other companies for search. When Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series in January, it also added Gemini as the default AI assistant when long-pressing the power button, with its own Bixby assistant taking a back seat.

The Information reports that today Fitzgerald testified that other companies had pitched Samsung on deals to preinstall their AI assistant apps, including Perplexity and Microsoft. But a DOJ lawyer pointed out that Google’s letters attempting to amend its deal with phone makers, which the company presented at the hearing, were only sent last week, just ahead of the trial. Also, internal slides presented today apparently showed that Google “was considering more restrictive  distribution agreements that would have required partners to preinstall Gemini alongside Search and Chrome,” The Information writes.

According to Bloomberg, Fitzgerald said the Gemini deal is a two-year agreement that, along with fixed monthly payments, sees Google giving Samsung a percentage of its subscription revenue for the Gemini app. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer David Dahlquist called the fixed monthly payment an “enormous sum,” Bloomberg says. Exactly how enormous isn’t known.

If the DOJ has its way, the results of these hearings could mean Google is forbidden from striking default placement deals in the future, would sell Chrome, and would be forced to license the vast majority of the data that powers Google Search. Google has argued that it should only have to give up the default placement deals.

Correction April 26th: This story previously said Samsung receives a percentage of ads revenue from the Gemini app, as originally reported by Bloomberg. We’ve updated the story to reflect that Google shares Gemini subscription revenue instead.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has infiltrated the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an agency that has a say over resources Musk needs or could benefit from for some of his private sector business, The Verge has learned. 

Three people who have been identified as DOGE staffers are listed in a public directory called “Finding People at the FCC.” Tarak Makecha, Jordan Wick, and Jacob Altik are all listed in the FCC directory, with email addresses associated with the agency. Each is listed under the office “OCH,” which in other agency documents refers to the Office of the Chairman.

Makecha is a finance executive who, according to LinkedIn, has most recently worked in a drone detection software company and previously worked at Tesla. Makecha has reportedly been involved through DOGE at OPM and the State Department. Wick is a former Waymo engineer who’s reportedly been given access to systems at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Altik is a lawyer who’s reportedly been involved at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). 

DOGE has recently expanded into other enforcement agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, as The Verge reported earlier on Friday. The FCC’s authority over radio, TV, broadband, and satellite intersects with Musk’s businesses, like granting certain permissions for SpaceX’s Starlink operations. Its role as a regulator and enforcer also means it stores information on SpaceX and its competitors in order to make decisions. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously said that Musk would recuse himself from potential conflicts. The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment about what the DOGE staffers’ role will be at the agency or what restrictions there will be on their data access.