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.
Related article
Meta AI now responds to buyer messages on Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace introduces new Meta AI features, including automated replies to buyer inquiries, the company announced Thursday. The platform also leverages AI to accelerate item listings, summarize seller profiles, and now lets sellers offer sh
Meta signs deal for millions of Amazon AI CPUs
Amazon has secured a significant partnership with Meta, once again relying on its own custom-designed chips. Meta has agreed to deploy millions of AWS Graviton chips to meet its expanding AI demands, Amazon confirmed on Friday.Note that AWS Graviton
Meta's natural gas surge may fuel South Dakota's power grid
Data centers have grown so massive that their electricity consumption now matches that of entire U.S. states. Consider Meta's Hyperion AI data center: once finished, it will consume as much power as South Dakota.Meta recently announced funding for se
Related Special Topic Recommendations
Comments (36)
0/500
Meta's slides waren wie ein schlechter Witz 😅. Wenn selbst Google und Apple sich beschweren, weißt du, dass du es vermasselt hast. Vielleicht sollten sie sich zunächst auf grundlegende Dinge wie Dokumentenbearbeitung konzentrieren, anstatt immer neue KI-Modelle zu entwickeln.
Those Meta slides were a mess! 😅 How do you even miss redactions like that? Feels like a rookie move for a tech giant.
Those Meta slides are a total mess! 😅 How do you even mess up redactions that badly? Feels like a rookie move for a tech giant. Curious to see how this plays out in court!

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.
Meta AI now responds to buyer messages on Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace introduces new Meta AI features, including automated replies to buyer inquiries, the company announced Thursday. The platform also leverages AI to accelerate item listings, summarize seller profiles, and now lets sellers offer sh
Meta signs deal for millions of Amazon AI CPUs
Amazon has secured a significant partnership with Meta, once again relying on its own custom-designed chips. Meta has agreed to deploy millions of AWS Graviton chips to meet its expanding AI demands, Amazon confirmed on Friday.Note that AWS Graviton
Meta's natural gas surge may fuel South Dakota's power grid
Data centers have grown so massive that their electricity consumption now matches that of entire U.S. states. Consider Meta's Hyperion AI data center: once finished, it will consume as much power as South Dakota.Meta recently announced funding for se
Meta's slides waren wie ein schlechter Witz 😅. Wenn selbst Google und Apple sich beschweren, weißt du, dass du es vermasselt hast. Vielleicht sollten sie sich zunächst auf grundlegende Dinge wie Dokumentenbearbeitung konzentrieren, anstatt immer neue KI-Modelle zu entwickeln.
Those Meta slides were a mess! 😅 How do you even miss redactions like that? Feels like a rookie move for a tech giant.
Those Meta slides are a total mess! 😅 How do you even mess up redactions that badly? Feels like a rookie move for a tech giant. Curious to see how this plays out in court!





Home






