Google, Apple, and Snap Express Displeasure Over Meta's Poorly-Redacted Slides

Today's antitrust trial involving Meta took a contentious turn when lawyers from Apple, Google, and Snap voiced their frustrations over a set of slides presented by Meta on Monday. These slides, which The Verge discovered had easily removable redactions, drew sharp criticism from the attorneys. Both Apple and Snap labeled the errors as "egregious," with Apple's representative hinting at a potential loss of trust in Meta regarding the handling of internal information. Google's attorney similarly criticized Meta for compromising the search giant's data security.

The details of these comments were reported by The Verge's Lauren Feiner, who is currently covering the trial. Neither Apple, Google, nor Meta responded immediately to The Verge's request for comment, while Snap opted not to comment.

Snap's attorney didn't mince words, accusing Meta of a "cavalier approach and casual disregard" towards the other companies involved in the case. They questioned whether Meta would have been as lax with redactions if its own information were at risk. In response, Meta's attorney, Mark Hansen, proposed hiring a neutral third party to handle future redactions.

Background Tensions

Even before the redaction fiasco, Snap had expressed discontent over what it deemed as the sharing of confidential information during Meta's opening statements. While Snap didn't specify the exact nature of the confidential information, Hansen maintained that he hadn't disclosed anything sensitive, a claim that Snap's attorney contested.

Hansen also explained why Meta hadn't forewarned Snap about the trial content, citing Snap's collaboration with the FTC and its status as a major competitor.

The Content of the Slides

Despite being redacted, the slides didn't contain particularly explosive information. One segment highlighted that iPhone users generally favored Apple's Messages app over those offered by Meta and Snap. Another slide, titled "Snapchat in 2020: Competitors Are Succeeding and Not Just Meta Apps," acknowledged that its rivals, including Meta's apps and TikTok, were doing well.

However, the issue for Snap and the other companies wasn't the nature of the information but the principle of privacy. Snap's attorney pointed out that Meta's lead attorney had openly referenced Snap's competitive assessments, which should have remained confidential.