In a major trial this week, newly shared documents showed that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once thought about turning Instagram into its own company.
This happened back in 2018, as worries grew about the government possibly breaking up big tech companies.
The idea came to light during Mr. Zuckerberg's testimony at a Washington trial. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now trying to undo Meta's earlier purchases of both Instagram and WhatsApp.
The case is part of a bigger push by the government to stop companies like Meta from holding too much power in the tech world.
According to Reuters, in the memo, Zuckerberg asked, "I wonder if we should consider the extreme step of spinning Instagram out as a separate company."
At the time, Meta (then called Facebook) was looking at ways to better connect its family of apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
While Zuckerberg saw value in combining the apps, he also worried that doing so might weaken Facebook's brand.
He warned that growing political pressure might one day force the company to split up the apps anyway.
He wrote, "As calls to break up the big tech companies grow, there is a non-trivial chance that we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5–10 years anyway."
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In the end, Meta chose not to separate Instagram and instead merged its apps even more closely.
But the fact that the idea was seriously considered shows how much the company feared government action.
The FTC filed its lawsuit in 2020 during President Donald Trump's term. It argues that Meta used its power unfairly by buying up rivals instead of competing with them, ABC News said.
One key point is that Meta bought Instagram because it was better at taking photos than what Facebook was developing at the time. Zuckerberg confirmed this in court, saying, "I thought Instagram was better at that, so I thought it was better to buy them."
Zuckerberg also noted that creating new apps isn't easy, saying most of Meta's past attempts failed to catch on.
The company now argues that breaking it up wouldn't help anyone and says it still faces strong competition from other apps like TikTok, YouTube, and Apple's messaging tools.
Still, the FTC claims Meta holds a monopoly when it comes to apps where friends and families connect and share.
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