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Mark Zuckerberg called to testify in Facebook parent Meta’s antitrust trial

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Monday in a Washington, D.C., courtroom to defend his social media firm from federal allegations that the know-how large is a monopoly.

Meta, the guardian firm of Fb, Instagram and WhatsApp, is dealing with off with the Federal Commerce Fee on Monday, for Day one in every of a landmark antitrust trial that would outcome within the firm’s breakup. For Zuckerberg, the case might decide whether or not the enterprise empire he began constructing whereas nonetheless a scholar at Harvard College will probably be compelled to interrupt aside.

The trial would be the first huge take a look at of the FTC’s willingness underneath President Trump to problem Large Tech, a long-time goal of Republicans. The lawsuit was initially filed towards Meta — then referred to as Fb — in 2020, throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period, earlier than being amended in 2021.

In its complaint, the FTC accuses Meta of “anticompetitive conduct,” alleging that the corporate’s possession of Instagram and WhatsApp offers it extreme management of the social media market.

“There’s nothing unsuitable with Meta innovating,” mentioned Daniel Matheson, lead legal professional for the FTC in his opening statements for the company Monday, “It is what occurred subsequent that could be a drawback.”

Bought by Fb in 2012 and 2014, respectively, Instagram and WhatsApp have grown into social media powerhouses.

To revive competitors, Meta should half methods with Instagram and WhatsApp, the federal government company says in court filings. The FTC additionally desires Meta to offer the federal government with prior discover for any future mergers and acquisitions.

With the landmark trial underway, this is what you could know.

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How lengthy will the Meta trial final, and who will testify?

The trial, which begins Monday in federal court docket in Washington, D.C., is anticipated to final a number of weeks.

U.S. District Choose James Boasberg will preside over the case, which might see a spread of witnesses together with Meta CEO and founder Zuckerberg; former Meta Chief Working Officer Sheryl Sandberg; former Meta Chief Know-how Officer Mike Schroepfer; Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom; and executives from rival social media platforms.

What is occurring in court docket immediately?

The FTC and Meta made their opening arguments on Monday, with witness testimony anticipated to start out within the afternoon.

In his opening assertion, lead FTC legal professional Matheson mentioned Meta was struggling to compete with the fast-growing WhatsApp and Instagram platforms and in shopping for them, the tech large was “eliminating speedy threats,” to their market.

Meta mentioned the corporate “did nothing unsuitable” by buying Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta legal professional Mark Hansen mentioned in his opening assertion that the 2 apps have grown considerably underneath the tech firm’s possession and that there isn’t a proof to show Meta is a monopoly.

If Meta had monopoly energy, it might train management over pricing within the social media area, Hansen mentioned. However Meta’s companies are free, he famous. “How can the FTC preserve this monopolization case when [Meta] has by no means charged customers a cent,” Hansen mentioned.

After the opening statements, Zuckerberg was the primary individual referred to as to the stand to testify. Throughout his testimony, Zuckerberg admitted Fb was battling cellular customers within the early 2010s. “Our entire firm had been constructed as much as that time” for desktop.

Referencing e mail communications despatched by the Meta government, the FTC identified that Zuckerberg had been eyeing the progress of competitor Instagram. Fb on the time was engaged on launching a brand new photograph app.

In keeping with the FTC, Zuckerberg despatched an e mail in Feb 2011 saying “Instagram looks as if it is rising shortly” that talked about their numbers and uploads.

In a 2012, Zuckerberg despatched one other e mail saying Fb was “thus far behind that we do not even perceive how far behind we’re,” including, “I fear that it’s going to take us too lengthy to catch up.”

What’s at stake?

The showdown is essentially the most vital authorized problem introduced towards Meta within the firm’s roughly 20-year historical past. If the FTC is profitable, Meta might be compelled to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. Instagram, which Meta has owned for over a decade, accounts for half of the corporate’s general promoting income.

“Instagram has additionally been selecting up the slack for Fb on the person entrance, notably amongst younger individuals, for a very long time,” Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg told the Related Press.

“The trial additionally comes as Meta is making an attempt to carry again OG Fb in an effort to attraction to Gen Z and youthful customers as they be a part of social media. Social media utilization is way extra fragmented immediately than it was in 2012 when Fb acquired Instagram, and Fb is not the place the cool faculty children hang around anymore. Meta wants Instagram to proceed rising, particularly as extra advertisers assume Instagram-first with their Meta budgets,” she added.

Meta, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, earned over $164 billion in income in 2024. Fb and Instagram are the 2 most profitable social media platforms on the earth.

In an announcement issued Sunday, April 13, Meta said the “stakes couldn’t be greater on this trial for U.S. shoppers and companies.”

What’s Meta saying?

The social media firm has called the FTC’s case “weak” and mentioned it “ignores actuality,” including that it faces stiff competitors from TikTok and YouTube. Each platforms outrank Fb and Instagram by way of how lengthy customers spend on every.

“In the end, an ill-conceived lawsuit like this may make firms assume twice earlier than investing in innovation, understanding they could be punished if that innovation results in success,” Meta’s statement reads. “On prime of it, this weak case is costing taxpayers thousands and thousands of {dollars}.”

“The FTC’s lawsuit towards Meta defies actuality,” a Meta spokesperson instructed CBS MoneyWatch. “The proof at trial will present what each 17-year-old on the earth is aware of: Instagram, Fb and WhatsApp compete with Chinese language-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and plenty of others.”

“Regulators must be supporting American innovation, relatively than looking for to interrupt up an excellent American firm and additional advantaging China on important points like AI,” the spokesperson added.

The FTC didn’t reply to a request for remark.

When did this case get began?

The historical past of the Meta case stretches again a number of years. The FTC initially filed the swimsuit in 2020 throughout President Trump’s first time period in workplace.

In June 2021, U.S. District Choose James Boasberg dismissed the antitrust lawsuit introduced by the FTC, claiming the lawsuits have been “legally inadequate” and didn’t provide enough proof to show Fb was a monopoly.

However the federal decide later cleared the trail for the case to proceed after the FTC launched extra proof in an amended criticism, according to The Washington Put up.

The Related Press

contributed to this report.

Mary Cunningham

Mary Cunningham is a information affiliate at CBS Information, primarily based in New York. She has labored on each the printed aspect, with CBS Information 24/7 streaming, and the digital aspect, writing tales for CBSNews.com. Her subsequent project is working with the “60 Minutes” staff.

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Fight intensifies over bill by former Edison executive to gut rooftop solar credits

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A invoice to sharply cut back the power credit given to householders with rooftop photo voltaic panels is pitting union electrical employees and the state’s massive utilities towards individuals who profit from the photo voltaic credit — and one of many first skirmishes happened within the Metropolis of Business on Wednesday.

Waving indicators and blowing whistles, dozens of rooftop photo voltaic house owners protested outdoors the workplace of Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier), who proposed Meeting Invoice 942 to slash the credits for individuals who put in the techniques earlier than April 15, 2023.

Jim Matthews, one of many rooftop photo voltaic house owners on the protest, stated he doubts he would have bought the panels if he would have identified the state can be reversing the incentives.

“Stuff like this tears my coronary heart,” stated Matthews, who lives in Hawthorne. “I believe it’s scandalous.”

Calderon labored for Southern California Edison and its guardian firm, Edison Worldwide, for 25 years earlier than she was elected in 2020. Her final place included managing the guardian firm’s political motion committee.

Edison and the state’s two different massive for-profit utilities have long tried to reduce the power credit that incentivized Californians to put money into the photo voltaic panels. The rooftop techniques have lowered the utilities’ gross sales of electrical energy.

“Calderon: For the Individuals or for Edison?” stated one signal waved by protesters outdoors Calderon’s workplace within the Metropolis of Business. “Cease SCE’s Revolving Door in Sacramento,” stated one other.

Two people on a roof and two below move a black panel.

Calderon advised the Occasions she launched the invoice as a result of she had realized that 97% of the individuals in her district had been paying greater electrical payments due to the photo voltaic credit going to the remaining 3% once they despatched the unused electrical energy from their photo voltaic panels to the grid.

“From an fairness standpoint, that’s not truthful,” she stated. “I’d love for everybody to have photo voltaic, however we have to do it in a good and equitable means.”

Calderon stated Edison, Pacific Fuel & Electrical and San Diego Fuel & Electrical have all despatched her letters supporting the invoice.

AB 942 would restrict the power credit offered to those that bought the techniques to 10 years — half the 20-year interval the state had advised rooftop house owners they’d obtain. It could additionally finish the incentives if the home was offered.

Uniting within the effort to oppose the invoice are dozens of environmental teams, together with the Sierra Membership and the Environmental Working Group, which level out that the state has lengthy stated the photo voltaic contracts would final for 20 years.

Additionally attending the protest had been representatives from the California Photo voltaic & Storage Assn., a commerce group that represents corporations promoting the rooftop photo voltaic techniques. The protest was organized by the Solar Rights Alliance, a statewide affiliation of photo voltaic customers.

Jeff Monford, a spokesperson for Edison, stated the corporate despatched Calderon a letter Wednesday backing the invoice. He stated the invoice has “nothing to do with utility earnings. It would lead to financial savings for our prospects.”

The corporate estimates that these prospects who don’t have photo voltaic would save $500 million by 2030 if AB 942 handed, or about 3% of the typical family electrical invoice.

The unions {of electrical} employees who set up and restore tools constructed by Edison and different electrical corporations are lobbying to get the invoice handed.

In an electronic mail, a spokesperson for the California State Assn. of Electrical Employees stated the group “strongly helps” the invoice, which it stated would “alleviate the monetary burden on non-solar ratepayers.”

At a gathering in Sacramento in late March, leaders of the group, which represents 83,000 electrical employees within the state, said a top goal was to reform the rooftop photo voltaic incentives.

“It’s unjust, unreasonable and unsustainable for Californians to proceed shoveling billions of {dollars} yearly to an business when it’s not justified nor truthful to non-solar prospects, notably when the burden falls hardest on low-income prospects,” Scott Wetch, a lobbyist for {the electrical} employees, wrote in a letter to the chair of the Meeting Utilities and Power Committee.

Calderon and {the electrical} employees level to an analysis by the state Public Utilities Fee’s public advocates workplace that stated the credit given to rooftop house owners for the electrical energy they ship to the grid is elevating the electrical payments of consumers who don’t personal the panels by $8.5 billion a yr.

The rooftop photo voltaic business and environmental teams disagree with that evaluation, saying it was flawed.

In a current letter to the Meeting committee, the environmental teams pointed to an evaluation that economist Richard McCann carried out for the rooftop photo voltaic business that discovered that electrical charges had risen because the utilities spent extra on infrastructure. That tools consists of the transmission strains wanted to attach industrial-scale photo voltaic farms to the grid.

Although householders’ photo voltaic panels helped hold demand for electrical energy flat for 20 years, the three utilities’ spending on transmission and distribution infrastructure had risen by 300%, McCann discovered.

“To deal with rising charges, California should deal with what’s actually unsuitable with our power system: uncontrolled utility spending and report utility earnings,” the environmental teams wrote.

In December 2022, the fee voted to chop incentives for anybody putting in the panels after April 15, 2023, by 75% however left the incentives in place for legacy prospects.

AB 942 wouldn’t apply to rooftop photo voltaic prospects who dwell in territory served by the state’s municipal utilities, together with the Los Angeles Division of Water and Energy.

A listening to on the invoice is scheduled for April 30.

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Minnesota Man Aditya Harsono Whose Student Visa Was Revoked Talks About Detainment

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Current movies on social media displaying immigration brokers taking individuals into custody unnerved Aditya Harsono, who had himself come to this nation from Indonesia on a pupil visa. However he stated he presumed that the media was most likely exaggerating the extent of the Trump administration’s actions.

His understanding shifted in late March, although, when a supervisor on the hospital the place he was working in western Minnesota summoned him downstairs, and two federal brokers put him in handcuffs.

“All the pieces form of shattered,” stated Mr. Harsono, who discovered that his pupil visa, which had allowed him to earn a grasp’s diploma in enterprise administration and to then keep for a yr to work, had been revoked due to a misdemeanor property destruction conviction. Mr. Harsono, who’s married to an American citizen and has utilized for a inexperienced card, has been held in a county jail since and faces deportation.

The individuals affected embody college students concerned in activism over the warfare in Gaza, whom the Trump administration has characterised as disruptive. Some others, together with Mr. Harsono, seem to have misplaced their visas on account of legal convictions, some for comparatively minor offenses.

Few of the scholars being held have spoken publicly about their conditions. However Mr. Harsono, 34, described in telephone interviews from the jail the place he has been held for weeks the shock of his arrest and the way in which that his visa revocation has upended his household. And his spouse, Peyton Harsono, advised of difficulties she now faces caring for their 8-month-old daughter, Adalet, whereas working as a social employee at a drug-treatment heart.

Ms. Harsono, a Minnesota native, stated the household has misplaced medical health insurance that had include Mr. Harsono’s job as a provide chain supervisor on the hospital. As their financial savings dwindle, Ms. Harsono, 24, has been pleading for assistance on a fund-raising web site, calling “the trauma of this separation insufferable.”

The State Division declined to reply to questions on Mr. Harsono’s case. In an announcement, it stated, “The Division of State will proceed to work carefully with the Division of Homeland Safety to implement zero tolerance for aliens in the USA who violate U.S. legal guidelines, threaten public security, or in different conditions the place warranted.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio lately stated the federal government had nullified the visas of scholars concerned in disruptive types of activism, together with acts of vandalism. “Once we determine lunatics like these, we take away their pupil visa,” Mr. Rubio said. “Nobody is entitled to a pupil visa.”

After shifting to the USA in 2015, Mr. Harsono acquired a bachelor’s diploma in environmental science from Southwest Minnesota State College, which he attended with a scholarship funded by the Indonesian authorities. Throughout his years in America, Mr. Harsono stated he pursued a ardour for hip-hop by recording music, learn historical past books and typically took half in peaceable protests over police misconduct.

He enrolled within the faculty’s M.B.A. program in 2022, and met Ms. Harsono within the residential advanced the place they each lived.

She was immediately smitten, she stated, including, “When you realize, you realize.”

In July 2022, Mr. Harsono was charged with destruction of property for drawing graffiti on 4 trailers that belonged to a meals firm.

Repairing the harm value lower than $500, a courtroom doc stated. Mr. Harsono pleaded responsible to misdemeanor destruction of property and agreed to pay $485, which included a fantastic and courtroom charges, data confirmed.

Talking on the telephone from Kandiyohi County Jail, roughly 95 miles west of Minneapolis, Mr. Harsono stated he was remorseful about what he had accomplished. He stated that he liked portray murals and had a lifelong ardour for avenue artwork, and had wrongly presumed that the trailers had been deserted.

The couple married within the fall of 2023. The next yr, they utilized for Mr. Harsono’s inexperienced card and shortly settled right into a routine, juggling the calls for of parenthood and new jobs. Cash was tight. Sleep was scarce. However all the things appeared to be going nicely, they stated, till Mr. Harsono’s arrest on the hospital on March 27.

The State Division revoked Mr. Harsono’s visa on the request of officers on the Division of Homeland Safety, in response to a memo from March 23 signed by John Armstrong, a profession diplomat. The 2022 property harm arrest, the memo stated, confirmed that Mr. Harsono “now poses a risk to U.S. public security.”

Mr. Armstrong wrote that the State Division wouldn’t notify Mr. Harsono concerning the revocation earlier than brokers took him into custody, citing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “operational safety.”

The day after his arrest, the Division of Homeland Safety issued a doc setting in movement deportation proceedings, stating that Mr. Harsono was topic to deportation as a result of he remained in the USA after his visa was revoked a couple of days earlier.

Mr. Harsono stated that the immigration officers who drove him to jail inquired at one level how somebody from Indonesia, an archipelago well-known for its seashores, had wound up in Minnesota, a spot with unforgiving winters. The brokers’ jovial dialog, Mr. Harsono stated, felt starkly at odds along with his temper, which he stated has worsened over the weeks in a jail unit that homes 16 individuals.

“I haven’t had recent air and daylight,” he stated final week.

Throughout his time in custody, Mr. Harsono stated he has mirrored on the explanations he selected to check in the USA. He stated he had regarded it as a rustic that values multiculturalism and freedom of speech.

Mr. Harsono stated he feels that the nation has modified in vital and ominous methods. Even when he had been to finally get a inexperienced card, Mr. Harsono stated he questioned whether or not he would ever really feel protected and at house right here. “America is not a democracy,” he stated.

He stated that he despairs on the thought that, ought to he be deported, he is likely to be barred from visiting the nation his spouse and daughter name house. He has begun to contemplate, he stated, how his spouse and daughter may fare if all of them had been to maneuver to Indonesia.

In solely a matter of weeks, Ms. Harsono stated her husband has missed out on a number of milestones for his or her child daughter. Adalet has begun to take a seat up unassisted, to get round in a rolling child walker and to say the phrase “dada” for the primary time when her father known as from jail.

“She’s gotten a lot greater,” she stated.

Throughout a courtroom listening to on April 10, an immigration choose dominated that Mr. Harsono could possibly be launched on bond, citing his eligibility for a inexperienced card, in response to his lawyer, Sarah Gad. However the authorities blocked his launch whereas it appeals the ruling, so Mr. Harsono stays in custody.

Along with the graffiti arrest, Ms. Gad stated {that a} authorities lawyer talked about in courtroom that Mr. Harsono had been arrested in 2021 throughout an indication towards police violence. Prosecutors dismissed the cost he confronted, a misdemeanor for violating a curfew, the lawyer added.

Ms. Harsono stated she struggles to ponder what would occur if her husband is finally deported. Dwelling with out him feels excruciating. And, having by no means traveled overseas, she stated the considered shifting to Indonesia is unthinkable.

“I’ve hardly ever been out of the state,” she stated. “The farthest I’m going is South Dakota.”

Alain Delaquérière contributed analysis.

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Illinois Senator Dick Durbin retiring, will not run for reelection in 2026 at end of term

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin introduced Wednesday morning he’s retiring and won’t run for reelection in 2026.

The choice of whether or not to run for re-election has not been straightforward. I actually love the job of being a United States Senator.

However in my coronary heart, I do know it’s time to cross the torch.

So, I’m saying at present that I can’t be in search of re-election on the finish of my time period. pic.twitter.com/eiBTPjToFT

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) April 23, 2025

In a video posted to X, Durbin stated, “I actually love the job of being a United State senator, however in my coronary heart I do know it’s time to cross the torch. So, I’m saying at present I can’t be in search of reelection on the finish of my time period.”

Durbin, who’s 80, expressed his gratitude to the folks of Illinois for electing him to the Senate for longer than anybody else in state historical past, and stated he was honored by the duty bestowed on him.

“Proper now the challenges going through our nation are historic and unprecedented,” he continued. “The threats to our democracy and our lifestyle are very actual, and I can guarantee you, I am going to do all the pieces in my energy to combat for Illinois and the way forward for our nation day-after-day of my remaining time within the Senate.”

Durbin known as his fellow Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth a “trusted pal and efficient chief,” and stated she shall be a “actual asset” to the state and the nation as Illinois’ subsequent senior senator.

Durbin is the senior senator for Illinois. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, filling the seat left vacant by longtime Sen. Paul Simon.

He additionally serves on the Senate Democratic Whip, the second-highest rating place for the celebration within the Senate. He was first elected to this management publish by Senate Democrats in 2005, and has been reelected to it each two years since.

Durbin is the rating member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He additionally serves on the Appropriations Committee and the Agriculture, Vitamin and Forestry Committee.

He launched the Dream Act, which might give undocumented immigrants who got here to the U.S. as youngsters and grew up right here a path to citizenship, in 2001 alongside Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). He was additionally a drive behind the institution of the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrival Program, or DACA, created by President Barack Obama in 2012.

He additionally championed the First Step Act, which was signed into legislation by President Trump in 2018, a bipartisan prison justice invoice that reformed sentencing legal guidelines and supplied extra alternatives for incarcerated folks to re-enter society upon their launch.

Durbin and his spouse Loretta Schaefer Durbin reside in Springfield, Illinois. He has three youngsters – Paul, Jennifer and Christine, his oldest daughter who died in 2008 from issues from a congenital coronary heart situation.

Sara Tenenbaum

Sara Tenenbaum is the Senior Digital Producer for CBS Information Chicago masking breaking, native and neighborhood information in Chicago. She beforehand labored as a digital producer and senior digital producer for ABC7 Chicago.