# Instagram [[Meta]]'s photo-and-video platform, bought by Facebook in 2012. In the Trump–Russia story it is the platform that got the least attention and did the most work: Russia's [[Internet Research Agency]] got more than twice as much engagement on Instagram as on Facebook. In the 2024–25 realignment of Big Tech with Trump it is one half of the Meta settlement. ## The acquisition Facebook announced the purchase in April 2012 at $1 billion in cash and stock; because Facebook's share price fell before closing, the deal was worth about **$736 million** when it closed on September 6, 2012. The purchase — together with [[WhatsApp]] in 2014 — is the core of the [[FTC]]'s monopoly case against Meta. ## The IRA's biggest channel Reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee in December 2018 (by New Knowledge, and by Oxford University with [[Graphika]]) found that IRA posts on Instagram drew about **187 million engagements**, against about **76.5 million** on Facebook. New Knowledge concluded that "Instagram is likely to be a key battleground on an ongoing basis," and that the IRA shifted toward Instagram as press scrutiny fell on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook's own 2017 congressional testimony had focused on Facebook. See [[Internet Research Agency]] and [[Sockpuppet Accounts]]. ## Suspension, realignment, settlement | Date | Event | |---|---| | Jan 7, 2021 | Trump suspended from Facebook and Instagram after the [[January 6 Capitol Attack]] | | Feb 2023 | Reinstated | | Nov 2024 | [[Mark Zuckerberg]] dines at Mar-a-Lago; Meta gives $1 million to the inaugural committee | | Jan 7, 2025 | Meta ends U.S. third-party fact-checking in favor of Community Notes, loosens rules on immigration and gender, moves trust-and-safety staff to Texas; Zuckerberg calls the election a "cultural tipping point" | | Jan 29, 2025 | Meta settles Trump's suit for **$25 million**, $22 million of it to the [[Donald J. Trump Presidential Library]], with no admission of liability | The sequence — a dinner, an inaugural donation, a policy reversal, then a settlement routed to a presidential project — is the same one [[YouTube]] and X followed. See [[Trump Retribution Ecosystem]]. ## Where it stands (2026) - **Antitrust.** Judge James Boasberg ruled against the FTC's monopoly case on November 18, 2025, finding the agency had not shown current monopoly power given competition from [[TikTok]] and [[YouTube]]; the FTC appealed on January 20, 2026. - **Addiction litigation.** In March 2026 a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent over addictive design in a case brought by a plaintiff who started on Instagram at age nine. - **Politics.** Meta's 2026 midterm plan puts Community Notes on Instagram, Facebook and Threads. Meta has also put tens of millions of dollars into super PACs backing tech-friendly candidates (see [[AI Political Spending Ecosystem]]). ## See Also - [[Meta]] · [[Facebook]] · [[WhatsApp]] · [[Mark Zuckerberg]] - [[Internet Research Agency]] · [[Sockpuppet Accounts]] - [[YouTube]] · [[TikTok]] · [[Twitter]] - [[Content Moderation]] · [[Deplatforming]]