Hard reset: Zuckerberg once considered deleting all Facebook friend lists to save platform

SHAH ALAM - In a revelation from Meta’s ongoing antitrust trial, internal emails show that CEO Mark Zuckerberg once proposed a radical strategy to rejuvenate Facebook’s declining popularity.

As Meta faces increasing competition and scrutiny in court, a 2022 email from Mark Zuckerberg has surfaced, revealing a bold and unconventional idea: deleting all user friend connections on Facebook.

“Option 1: Double down on Friending. One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start again.” Zuckerberg wrote in an internal message to Meta’s top executives.

The idea stemmed from growing concerns that Facebook was losing cultural relevance among younger demographics and spending less time on the platform.

Zuckerberg was brainstorming ways to reignite user engagement, even suggesting that the platform could try the idea on a small scale to test its effects.

“Even if (Instagram) and (WhatsApp) do well, I don’t see a way for our company to succeed in the way we need if FB falters, so we need to get this right,” he added.

However, not everyone within Meta agreed with Zuckerberg’s approach. Tom Alison, head of Facebook, wrote back to Zuckerberg with caution, highlighting the potential consequences on other Meta platforms.

“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,” Alison warned.

The 40-year-old CEO, however, continued to explore alternatives, asking in the same thread: “Do you have a sense of how much work it would be to convert profiles to a follow model?” suggesting a potential shift from Facebook’s long-standing friend-based architecture to one resembling platforms like Twitter (now X) or Instagram.

Despite the internal debate, the idea was ultimately shelved. Zuckerberg clarified during his testimony in the antitrust trial, “As far as I can tell, we never did that.”

These revelations came during Zuckerberg’s testimony in a high-stakes Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust trial that could change the future of Meta.

The FTC alleges that Meta built a monopoly by acquiring potential rivals like Instagram (purchased in 2012 for USD $1 billion) and WhatsApp (purchased in 2014 for USD$19 billion), instead of competing fairly.

“Since at least 2012, Meta has enjoyed monopoly power in that market. The Commission further contends that the Defendant unlawfully maintained that monopoly by acquiring two actual or nascent competitors.” the FTC wrote in a court filing.

Meta has since defended itself, claiming the tech landscape has dramatically changed with new rivals like TikTok, YouTube and X eating into user attention spans.

“The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage, and many others,” Meta argued in a company statement.

The outcome of the trial could be monumental. If the FTC wins, Meta might be forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, potentially slashing its advertising revenue by as much as 50 per cent.

While Zuckerberg’s drastic idea was never implemented, the company has since made quieter, more strategic pivots to revive Facebook’s core identity.

In early 2025, Meta rolled out a new “Friends Tab”, a dedicated feed focused solely on content from friends and family, distancing it from algorithm-heavy content.

“The friend part has gone down quite a bit,” Zuckerberg admitted during his testimony.

He added that the Facebook feed has become “more of a broad discovery and entertainment space.”

“This idea of having a central place in what's going on with your friends, that was like the magic of the early days of social media.

“We’re making sure that there’s still a place for this stuff on Facebook. It is something that shouldn’t get lost in the modern social media mix,” Alison told The New York Times.

While Zuckerberg’s proposed friend-list purge never left the email chain, it highlights the pressure Meta faces to remain relevant in a changing digital world. The trial may yet reshape the social media giant’s structure.