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The Meta has considered some unexpected ideas for its social networks in recent years, such as removing friend lists on Facebook to boost platform usage. These revelations were made during a trial that may force the company to sell WhatsApp and Instagram in the United States this week.

According to The Verge, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent over nine hours in court, considering the time he spent before the court between Monday and Tuesday.

The Federal Trade Commission wants to understand the company’s motivation for acquiring rivals. The organization’s theory is that Meta bought competitors to maintain its relevance, fearing they would grow and challenge its market dominance — thereby “mining” competition illegally.

3 unexpected ideas for Meta’s social networks

The following are some of the revelations made during the trial, including the separation of Instagram from Meta — something the company is now fighting to maintain under the same umbrella.

1. Deleting all Facebook friend lists

The idea of deleting all friend lists on the social network emerged in 2022, when Zuckerberg considered that Facebook was rapidly losing “cultural relevance.” The proposal was to make users feel instigated to start connections from scratch if friend lists were deleted.

The CEO even considered testing the feature in a small country first to avoid losing many users at once if it wasn’t well received. However, the idea didn’t move forward.

2. Creating a feed for ads only

During the trial, the idea of creating a feed with only ads on the social network was also revealed. The proposal considered that ads distributed on the social network are as relevant as organic content, and users consume them with the same intensity.

3. Separating Instagram and WhatsApp from Meta

Despite being on trial to defend keeping Instagram and WhatsApp under Meta’s umbrella, the company previously considered separating the photo-sharing social network from the conglomerate.

In a 2018 email exchange, Zuckerberg anticipated a possible lawsuit — like the one happening today — and evaluated that companies might perform better after being divided.

I removed all links related to Canaltech and TechBlog, and rewrote the text to make it suitable for a technology blog with accessible and professional language.