A federal judge ruled in favor of Meta Platforms Tuesday, saying the company did not illegally stifle competition by buying Instagram and WhatsApp, giving Big Tech its first decisive win against the antitrust crackdown started in President Donald Trump's first term.

The ruling is a major setback for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is pursuing a separate antitrust case against Amazon.com. The agency sought to force Meta to restructure or sell Instagram and WhatsApp in order to restore competition among social media networks.

Meta argued at trial that buying companies that excelled in new features instead of building competitor products was a valid business strategy, and that the FTC had ignored competitive pressure from ByteDance's TikTok, Google's YouTube and Apple's messaging app, among others.

U.S. District Judge Judge James Boasberg, who issued the ruling, recognized last year that the case might be a difficult one for the FTC to win, saying the agency's arguments "at times strain this country’s creaking antitrust precedents to their limits."

The case is part of a larger antitrust crackdown on Big Tech in the U.S. The FTC is separately pursuing an antitrust case against Amazon.com, while the Department of Justice has brought claims against Alphabet's Google and Apple.