Leaked internal emails reveal Zuckerberg’s concerns over Facebook’s fading influence — and the radical ideas Meta considered to win users back.

As Meta’s antitrust trial with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) unfolds, newly revealed internal emails offer a rare glimpse into the company’s long-running efforts to revive Facebook’s cultural relevance — an issue that has plagued the platform for years.

The documents, shared during the first week of the trial, date back to 2022 and show Meta executives — including CEO Mark Zuckerberg — deeply concerned about Facebook’s waning status in the social media landscape. At the heart of the discussion was a fundamental question: how to make Facebook feel modern in a world rapidly shifting away from its “friending” model.

In one striking email, Zuckerberg acknowledged what many users had already sensed. “Even though the FB app’s engagement is steady in many places, it feels like its cultural relevance is decreasing quickly,” he wrote. He warned that a faltering Facebook could threaten the entire company’s future, even if platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp continued to perform well.

Three years later, the issue remains unresolved. During Meta’s Q4 2024 earnings call, Zuckerberg announced plans to bring back “OG Facebook,” signaling an attempt to return to the platform’s roots while making it more appealing in 2025. A revamped “Friends” tab is one of the first visible changes in this strategy.

But back in 2022, Meta was weighing far more radical solutions.

The Problem with “Friending”

Zuckerberg’s emails detail a growing concern that Facebook’s core social structure — the mutual “friending” system — had become outdated. Competing platforms like Instagram, Twitter (now X), and TikTok all operate on a “following” model that allows for more fluid social connections.

“Friending feels out of vogue,” Zuckerberg wrote, describing how users’ networks had become stale and how the act of sending a friend request felt “heavyweight” in a fast-paced digital culture. He admitted that most people now prefer to simply follow someone without the social pressure of reciprocation.

He also noted that Facebook’s decline in cultural cachet made friending even less appealing: “Since FB doesn’t feel as culturally relevant, that adds further weight to adding someone on FB vs other services.”

Radical Ideas, Real Risks

Among the boldest ideas floated in the emails was the possibility of deleting everyone’s Facebook friends and asking users to start over — effectively wiping the social graph clean. While acknowledging the risks, Zuckerberg considered testing the idea in a smaller market to gauge the impact.

“This obviously carries the risk that if we did that then a lot of people just wouldn’t rebuild their graphs or would become less engaged,” he wrote. “But I don’t think small things like spring cleaning flows would move the needle.”

Zuckerberg also suggested that Facebook might need to fully embrace the “follow” model — not just for public profiles, but across the platform. Such a shift, he said, would require eliminating longstanding features like “liking” pages and rethinking the app’s organizing principles entirely.

An Ongoing Identity Crisis

The internal debate reflects a deeper identity crisis within Meta about Facebook’s role in a fragmented and ever-changing social media ecosystem. Platforms like TikTok have redefined how people interact online — with algorithmic discovery, content-first engagement, and minimal emphasis on personal networks.

Meta’s leadership appears to recognize that simply iterating on old models won’t be enough. As Zuckerberg put it in one email: “We need to find a strategy that doesn’t leave one service picking up the scraps the other service leaves behind.”

Whether the return of “OG Facebook” — or more sweeping structural changes — can restore its place in pop culture remains to be seen. For now, Meta’s courtroom battle may be shining more light on its internal one: the fight to keep Facebook relevant in a world that’s moved on.