Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was considering removing all Facebook friends to increase the cultural relevance of the social network. The “potentially crazy idea” was revealed Monday as part of evidence introduced on the first day of the US government’s antitrust trial against Meta, as executives called it at the time.
In one message to meta employees in 2022, Zuckerberg proposed a strategy of “wiping everyone’s graphs and starting again” as a possible solution to the declining importance of Facebook in the social networking field. The idea was that by forcing everyone to recreate their friend’s graphs, users could encourage them to reconnect with the social network when rebuilding their social networks.
Others in Meta, including Facebook head Tom Alison, pushed back the plan and ultimately the strategy was not implemented.
However, the evidence presented at the trial revealed that Zuckerberg was considering other strategies to maintain his company’s relevance, such as shifting Facebook from a friend-based model to a follower-based model. That didn’t happen either.
Over the past few weeks, Facebook has refocused on friend connections and has revamped the Friends tab to return to “OG Facebook.” The new tab will focus solely on friend requests and friend’s content, such as posts, reels, stories, birthdays, etc.
“I think there are many opportunities to make it [Facebook] Zuckerberg spoke to investors in Meta’s fourth quarter earnings about his key goals this year.
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