Mark Zuckerberg Considered Wiping Facebook Friends List, Reveals Antitrust Trial:

An unanticipated revelation came to light from the Meta antitrust trial within the US: Mark Zuckerberg once suggested that users should be made to delete their Facebook friend lists and start fresh. The notion came to light in an email exchange that was publicly accessible as part of the legal case.

Zuckerberg’s email regarding user engagement posted in Fortune literally stated his goal to drive up numbers for youngsters who were logining to Facebook. His email suggested deleting social graphs and inspiring people to reconnect. It would seem endless for everyone to be motivating in some way. In his verbatim words, “One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start over again.”

Violent Discussions Over the Zuckerberg Proposal Within Meta

The proposal sparked immediate internal debate. Tom Alison, the head honcho over at Facebook raised eyebrows about Instagram as an ecosystem pivot point on freinds and family. He pointed out that friending remains the core of engagement centrally to Meta and the user points of interaction and that kind of reset might backfire.

Besides the removing of friend lists, Zuckerberg wanted to rechange the model of Facebook from a friend-centric to a follower-centric one as done by Twitter and Instagram. However none of these notions were put into motion.

Analyzing These Legal Negotiations Associated With Meta

New strategies were developed as Meta and FTC were embroiled in a legal fight. The FTC charged Meta with a social media monopoly due to its purchase of rival competitors such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

This lawsuit will be particularly important to Meta’s reorganization because it may require the dismantling of its core platforms. While that has not occurred yet, the emails that were shared publicly illustrate the desperate measures that Meta has had to take in considering its position in the digital economy.