A judge will now decide the future of social - and Zuck

#337: A judge will now decide the fate of social ads, personal privacy, and define the future of the daily clicks and shares of half the global population...

That’s a wrap. The gavel has fallen on the final day of Meta’s antitrust trial which has seen Zuck and his social sidekicks face the fight of their lives.

Zuck’s now free to jet back to his yacht on the Norwegian fjords but not for long - because he’s back in court in September for a trial that’ll be many, many times worse.

Over six weeks, the (anti)social network has been forced to reveal its secrets, its infighting, and defend accusations that it killed competition by buying its rivals.

The central accusation was that Zuck threw $20 billion - and well over the asking price - at buying rising competitors Instagram and WhatsApp.

The US Federal Trade Commission’s case is that Meta did it to remove competition and that without it, consumers would have enjoyed better social products.

Meta argued, obviously, that without its investment, Insta and WhatsApp would never have grown to 3.98 billion users, and the world would be worse.

Time will tell.

The trial has revealed a lot about the innerworkings of Meta - and the fascinating computations that run around in Zuck’s brain.

I’m going to dive into the highlights in this newsletter today.

That includes some educated guesses about what it will mean for the future of the $164.5 billion social ad market, and for the publishing industry.

But before I do, join me in saying hi to 81 new subs overnight, including some new faces from my mates at Condé Nast in New York, Canva in Austin, Texas, Yahoo in Los Angeles, social gamers Playco in Japan, The Retail Media Consultancy in Sydney, The University of Massachusetts Lowell, award-winning PR agency Top of Mind in Fort Lauderdale, the digital transformation team at Australia’s Victorian Government, Aussie media consultants Mindbox, and the management team at Australia’s Newcastle Jets A-league football team. ⚽

Right, what have we learned about Zuck, Meta, and what are the chances the company that created social is about to be broken up?

It’s big biccies, so let’s go…