- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once floated the idea of wiping users’ Facebook friends to boost the platform’s relevance. The email was revealed as part of the FTC’s landmark antitrust case against Meta. The FTC is seeking to unwind Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, but the company maintains it does not hold a monopoly power in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving digital marketplace.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the witness stand on Monday amid a landmark antitrust trial against the company.
Various emails from Zuckerberg’s past communication were introduced as evidence, including one from 2022, when the Meta boss proposed a “crazy” strategy to boost Facebook’s waning cultural relevance: deleting all users’ friend networks.
“Option 1. Double down on Friending,” Zuckerberg wrote in a 2022 message to senior Meta executives. “One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start again.”
The message, suggested in response to growing concerns about Facebook’s weakening relevance, suggested that the company could revitalize user engagement by eliminating existing friend connections and encouraging users to rebuild their networks from scratch.
The proposal was met with skepticism from some within the company. Tom Alison, the head of Facebook at the time, cautioned that such a move could undermine critical platform functionality, particularly on Instagram.
He responded to the Meta boss, writing, “I’m not sure Option #1 in your proposal (Double-down on Friending) would be viable given my understanding of how vital the friend use case is to IG.”
Zuckerberg pressed the idea further, however, questioning whether a shift from a friend-based model to a follower-based model might be feasible.
Though the proposal was never actually implemented, as Zuckerberg noted in court on Monday, the email reveals how concerned Meta was with remaining competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Meta’s antitrust trial
A separate internal email, written by the Meta CEO in 2008, is at the heart of the FTC’s ongoing antitrust case against the platform. In it, he wrote, “It is better to buy than compete.”
The trial, which began Monday, is the result of a years-in-the-making case over Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC’s case alleges the company bought the rival platforms to squash competition and establish an illegal monopoly in the social media market. If Meta loses the case it could be forced to break off Instagram and WhatsApp.
Meta insists that the competitive landscape has shifted dramatically and that it now contends with a host of formidable rivals including TikTok, YouTube, iMessage, and more.
“The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others. More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final. Regulators should be supporting American innovation, rather than seeking to break up a great American company and further advantaging China on critical issues like AI,” the company said in a statement.
Experts say the FTC will face an uphill battle in proving its case, pointing to a recent court filing in which Meta emphasized that the FTC must demonstrate the company holds monopoly power in the current market—not based on conditions from years past. This requirement may be a hurdle for regulators, as the competitive landscape has evolved significantly since Meta acquired WhatsApp and Instagram with new powerful rivals like TikTok gaining ground.
The risks for Meta are still significant, as a forced divestiture of Instagram could slash its advertising revenues by as much as 50%.
Representatives for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune, made outside normal working hours.
