Meta’s redacted slides for its FTC antitrust hearing contained poor redactions that can be easily removed to reveal the information the company wanted to keep private.
One slide included a quote from an Apple executive that seemed to illustrate how iMessage and Facebook are comparable social networks.
Another slide indicated that competitive social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat are thriving, which is the opposite of the narrative Meta was trying to push.
These revelations are reminiscent of Sony’s blunder in an antitrust trial concerning Microsoft, when poor redactions meant hidden information was still visible.
This has led to calls for greater care to be taken over the redaction process, or for companies to stop trying to redact at all and just file confidential documents separately.