The 2006 Zuckerberg quote at the center of Meta’s antitrust trial

In September 2006, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, described what made his social network special. “Facebook is about real connections to actual friends,” he wrote in a company post.

Two decades later, that description is at the center of a landmark antitrust trial against Zuckerberg’s social networking empire, now called Meta, and whether it illegally stifled competition. In essence, the trial has raised the question of whether social networking is simply about connections to friends and family, or whether it is something more.

The Federal Trade…