Mark Zuckerberg once proposed a drastic strategy to revive Facebook’s waning popularity — completely wiping users’ friend lists annually. This bold idea surfaced during an internal conversation in 2022 and has now come to light during the ongoing Meta antitrust trial, according to internal emails presented by the FTC.

Zuckerberg expressed concern that Facebook’s “cultural relevance is decreasing quickly,” prompting him to consider a reset of the platform’s core social feature. The proposal was to erase everyone’s friend connections once a year, essentially forcing users to rebuild their social network from scratch.

“Maybe a crazy idea,” Zuckerberg wrote in an email, but one he seriously contemplated. His rationale was that the platform could regain engagement by encouraging users to reconnect and start fresh. To mitigate the potential fallout, he even suggested testing the feature in a small country before a global rollout.

The idea wasn’t warmly received internally. Tom Allison, head of Facebook, expressed doubts, noting that the number of friends is one of Facebook’s key engagement metrics. Removing that might do more harm than good, potentially leading to mass user exodus rather than increased activity.

Zuckerberg ultimately shelved the idea, admitting during the trial that Meta never pursued it. Instead, the company has focused on more conventional strategies to modernize Facebook, including updated interfaces and improved aesthetics — changes that aim to attract new users without shocking the existing base.

Whether Facebook has managed to halt its cultural decline is up for debate, but it’s clear that 2022 was a turning point where even the wildest ideas were on the table.

🔗 Source: Wccftech