Mark Zuckerberg once floated making users start friend lists from scratch for engagement

That email was introduced as evidence during Facebook’s landmark antitrust trial, for which Zuckerberg took the stand Monday, per Fortune. The Meta founder reportedly introduced the Nathan For You-esque scheme in response to “growing concerns about Facebook’s weakening relevance,” suggesting that wayward users would have to engage to rebuild their networks if that network was just randomly gone one day. It’s almost as visionary as dropping the “the.”

Unsurprisingly, the suggestion was met with “skepticism” from some senior executives, Fortune reports. “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,” responded Tom Allison, the head of Facebook at the time. Apparently, Zuckerberg continued to press the issue, exploring whether it would make sense to transition from a friend-based model to a follower-based model (once again replicating features from the platform’s rival, TikTok). 

While those changes were never implemented, Zuckerberg used the emails to prove that Meta remains competitive in the digital landscape, which makes up the crux of this trial trial. The FTC alleges that the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to squash competition and create an illegal monopoly, while Meta claims that the landscape has shifted and it now competes with a number of equally powerful platforms like TikTok, YouTube, iMessage, and more. “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,” Meta said in a statement. If the suit doesn’t go its way, Meta may be forced to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, but that’s okay—they can just build back their network from scratch.