During a high-stakes antitrust trial that could shake the foundations of the social media industry, a surprising revelation about Mark Zuckerberg’s 2022 strategy for Facebook made headlines: he once floated the idea of erasing everyone’s friend lists and starting over.
The unexpected detail came to light Monday as Zuckerberg took the stand in Washington, D.C., as the first witness in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) landmark case against Meta. The FTC alleges that Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were designed to crush competition and entrench its dominance.
In a 2022 internal email made public during the proceedings, Zuckerberg expressed concern over Facebook’s declining relevance and proposed an extreme idea. “One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start again,” he wrote. In Facebook-speak, “graphs” refers to users’ social connections — essentially, their friend networks.
The idea was part of a larger discussion on how Facebook might double down on social connections, which Zuckerberg feared were becoming less central to the platform’s appeal. Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, pushed back cautiously, saying he wasn’t sure the plan was feasible given Instagram’s reliance on user connections.
Zuckerberg, in the email chain, also considered moving toward a “follow” model, where users subscribe to others’ updates rather than forming mutual friendships. “Do you have a sense of how much work it would be to convert profiles to a follow model?” he asked.
On the stand, Zuckerberg confirmed that the idea was ultimately shelved. “As far as I can tell, we never did that,” he said. Wearing a suit and tie, the Meta CEO explained that Facebook had changed significantly since its 2004 launch and that connecting with friends is no longer its core function.
“The friend part has gone down quite a bit,” he testified. “The feed has turned into more of a broad discovery and entertainment space.”
That evolution of Facebook’s purpose plays directly into the FTC’s claims. The government argues that Meta has maintained a monopoly in the social connection space, in part by buying up rising competitors. The $1 billion Instagram deal in 2012 and the $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014 are central to the FTC’s case. Regulators describe Meta’s playbook as a “buy or bury” approach, using its vast resources to either acquire or eliminate competition.
A key piece of evidence the FTC cites is a 2008 email in which Zuckerberg wrote, “It is better to buy than compete.” FTC attorney Daniel Matheson, in his opening remarks, said this strategy has allowed Meta to collect massive profits “beyond what you would expect to see in a competitive environment.”
Meta’s legal team, however, is pushing back hard. Attorney Mark Hansen said the FTC’s claims were based on “a grab bag of theories at war with the facts and at war with the law.” He argued that Meta operates in a highly competitive market where TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms present strong alternatives. Hansen insisted the acquisitions in question were legal and helped improve the user experience.
If the court sides with the FTC, Meta could be forced to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp — a move that would dramatically reshape the digital landscape. Judge James Boasberg, not a jury, will decide the case, which is expected to last up to eight weeks.
Whether or not Zuckerberg’s radical “reset” idea was ever a serious proposal, its revelation underscores how worried Meta has been about staying relevant. As users spend more time on short-form video platforms and other forms of entertainment, Facebook — once the social hub of the internet — may be searching for ways to reinvent itself, even if it means starting from scratch.
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