Facebook Might Pose Dangers. But It Isn’t a Monopoly.

Even in a year when bashing tech companies has become a bipartisan avocation, last week’s antitrust assault on Facebook Inc. stands out. The social-media giant now faces dual lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and 46 state attorneys general seeking, among other things, to forcibly undo its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Given this alliance of federal regulators and so many states, red and blue, you might think the case is open-and-shut. And sure enough, Facebook being Facebook, the complaints are packed with internal emails boasting about dubious objectives and unseemly motivations. (“It is better to buy than compete,” Mark Zuckerberg writes at one point.) Look closer at the underlying conduct, though, and the suits are far weaker than they seem.