# Just dominant enough

*On the intriguing subtext of Meta's antitrust deck*

By [Occasional Observations](https://paragraph.com/@oo) · 2025-04-16

---

Meta's deck from the [FTC proceedings](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25896886/metas-opening-statement-slides.pdf) is interesting because of how simple it is. It's made for a non-tech audience focused on a single story with major movements and just a couple data points to digest at a time. Because the audience (presumably) uses Facebook, the business of Meta feels familiar. So the deck needs to inform the audience of a certain reality without losing — or angering — them altogether.

(Just as interesting is what they don't say, of course — that's strategy.)  
  
The slides on competitive dynamics are interesting, too, and they're familiar to anyone who's done a robust comparative analysis: the obvious look-a-likes are not likely or always your actual competition. As Reed Hastings famously said, "You get a show or a movie you're really dying to watch, and you end up staying up late at night, so we actually compete with sleep."

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/9c1e222ca30c5e6c92d793c60fdf081c.png)

  

This "everyone competes with us" tack could backfire in that it reveals just how big and broad Meta's reach is. It grows beyond the question of monopoly, approaching a powerful information network that regulators aren't comfortable with.

The deck is an admission of size without a confession of dominance: yes, they've infiltrated every digital nook and cranny, but they're not vertically extractive according to the definition of a monopoly.  
  
\[Note: This isn't a post on the case itself or its merits either way.\]

---

*Originally published on [Occasional Observations](https://paragraph.com/@oo/just-dominant-enough)*