{"id":3900,"date":"2025-04-15T23:51:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T23:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/mark-zuckerberg-once-had-a-crazy-idea-to-save-facebooks-decline\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T23:52:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T23:52:01","slug":"mark-zuckerberg-once-had-a-crazy-idea-to-save-facebooks-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/mark-zuckerberg-once-had-a-crazy-idea-to-save-facebooks-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Zuckerberg Once Had a \u2018Crazy Idea\u2019 to Save Facebook\u2019s Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook more than two decades ago. Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> had what he described as a \u201ccrazy idea.\u201d Facebook (<\/a>Meta (META)<\/a>), once monarch of the social media era, was losing cultural relevance. Zuckerberg\u2019s solution? Delete everyone\u2019s Facebook friends and force users to engage with the app to rebuild their network.<\/p>\n

\n<\/section>\n

Although it never came to fruition, the strategy was revealed yesterday (April 14) during the first day of an ongoing antitrust trial against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram (META)<\/a> and WhatsApp<\/a>. The case, brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), argues that Meta\u2019s acquisitions of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 amounted to an illegal monopoly over the social media market.<\/p>\n

\u201cOption 1. Double down on Friending<\/a>,\u201d wrote Zuckerberg in a 2022 email to Meta executives. \u201cOne potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone\u2019s graphs and having them start again,\u201d he added. Zuckerberg\u2019s strategy of wiping \u201cgraphs,\u201d or a user\u2019s network of social contacts, reportedly could have taken place on an annual basis.<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea wasn\u2019t particularly well-received by top Meta executives like Tom Alison<\/a>, the head of Facebook, who pointed out that Zuckerberg\u2019s strategy could undermine Instagram\u2019s reliance on a user\u2019s Facebook friends network. \u201cI\u2019m 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,\u201d responded the executive. Zuckerberg followed up by continuing to brainstorm, asking whether it could be possible to overhaul Facebook\u2019s friend-based model entirely in favor of a follower-based model.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg\u2019s vision didn\u2019t pan out, but it underscores the extent to which Meta was willing to adapt in order to stay competitive\u2014something the FTC is now trying to demonstrate in court by citing a trove of old emails from Zuckerberg, including a 2012 message in which the billionaire admitted that \u201cInstagram was growing so much faster than us that we had to buy them for $1 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crux of the FTC\u2019s argument is that Meta, through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, employed a \u201cbury or buy\u201d strategy to preserve its dominance in the social media industry. The agency initially sued Meta in 2020 in a federal case in Washington, D.C., which was later dismissed and refiled with an amended complaint the following year.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last up to two months and will be decided by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg<\/a>. If the FTC prevails, Meta could be forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp\u2014a move that would carry major consequences for the tech giant.<\/p>\n

Instagram has become an increasingly lucrative division of Meta in recent years, with the photo and video-sharing app accounting for 27 percent of Meta\u2019s revenue in 2021<\/a>. This year, Instagram is expected to represent more than half of Meta\u2019s U.S. advertising revenue<\/a> by generating $32 billion throughout the year, according to the market research firm eMarketer.<\/p>\n

Meta, for its part, claims that the FTC\u2019s argument rests upon a vision of the social media landscape that is no longer accurate. The agency has \u201cgerrymandered a fictitious market<\/a>\u201d that unfairly paints Meta as a monopoly and omits powerful rivals, noted the company in a recent blog post. \u201cThe evidence will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram competes with TikTok (and Youtube and X and many other apps),\u201d added Meta.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Mark<\/p><\/div>\n