Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as soon as thought-about deleting everybody’s Fb associates in an effort to spice up the social community’s cultural relevance. This “probably loopy concept,” because the exec known as it on the time, was revealed on Monday as part of the proof launched throughout the first day of the U.S. authorities’s antitrust trial towards Meta.
In a single message to Meta workers in 2022, Zuckerberg proposed the technique of “wiping everybody’s graphs and having them begin once more” as a attainable answer to Fb’s declining significance within the social networking area. The concept was that forcing everybody to re-create their buddy graphs may encourage customers to reconnect with the social community as they rebuild their social connections.
Others at Meta, together with the top of Fb, Tom Alison, pushed again on the plan, and finally, the technique was by no means applied.
Nonetheless, the proof introduced within the trial revealed that Zuckerberg had thought-about different methods to take care of his firm’s relevance, together with shifting Fb from a friends-based mannequin to a follower-based mannequin. That additionally by no means got here to be.
In latest weeks, Fb has centered once more on connecting associates, having revamped its Pals tab in an effort to return to an “OG Fb.” The brand new tab centralizes buddy requests and solely associates’ content material, together with their posts, reels, tales, and birthdays.
“I believe there are a whole lot of alternatives to make [Facebook] far more culturally influential than it’s in the present day,” Zuckberg instructed buyers throughout Meta’s This fall 2024 earnings name about his key objectives for the 12 months forward. “I believe a few of this can sort of get again to how Fb was initially used again within the day.”