At a time when Europeans are eagerly awaiting the European Commission’s rigorous enforcement of the new tech rules designed to tackle digital platform power, this week’s developments across the Atlantic reminded us that big tech scrutiny has not only been on the European agenda in recent years. On Monday, 14 April 2025, a trial began at the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia that is expected to last a while. The court will hear the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) complaint against Meta, alleging that the social media titan has violated U.S. antitrust laws by acquiring WhatsApp and Instagram. The case is a landmark for more reasons than just the novel legal issues at stake, dealing with mergers that were reviewed and cleared a decade ago. It also demonstrates that the U.S. enforcers are still determined to break big tech power. And, evidently, the trial is taking place in turbulent times, when it is difficult to draw a clear line between politics and law enforcement – especially because the same judge has to rule on both anti-monopoly cases against U.S. tech companies and cases against the US administration regarding the deportation of Venezuelan migrants under wartime statutes – as the New York Times reports.