Lately, Meta has been facing pressure from regulatory authorities over its unfair methods of blocking competition and maintaining its dominance in the market. The FTC has been actively pursuing it, and the company has currently gone through its first week of antitrust trial. During the trial, internal communication, such as emails and documents that dated back to 2022, were made public, which basically revealed that even the company's top executives were anxious about Facebook losing its appeal, especially among young users, as the management is trying to figure out ways to stay culturally relevant.
Internal emails and documents show Meta struggling to keep Facebook's appeal and looking for ways to restore its cultural relevance
Facebook used to be the most popular social media platform some years ago, and the format stood out from the rest. However, with the growing number of players entering the industry, the platform has taken a back seat, and users seem more inclined to adopt the new content consumption structure that relies more on posts from creators and public figures. This has been an internal struggle, as messages from April 2022 revealed during the antitrust trial via TechCrunch showed that Mark Zuckerberg was worried about Facebook's "Friends" model becoming outdated.
The communication shed light on Meta's internal concerns regarding Facebook's traditional structure, which is said to be holding it back from growing, especially in times when creator-focused content attracts more attention than updates about people you know alone. Seeing the popularity of TikTok, which is a creator-focused platform, Facebook's format does appear redundant or in dire need of a revamp.
It is 2025 now, and even after so many years, Meta seems to be stuck with the same problem: finding ways to keep Facebook culturally relevant today. This was even acknowledged during the company's Q4 earnings call this January, where one of the key goals of the tech giant brought forward was to bring Facebook back to its popularity or, as he referred to it, return to "OG Facebook."
To address the problem, Meta recently revamped the Friends tab, which was meant to help bring back personal connections with close friends and make it a meaningful experience. Zuckerberg even floated the idea of letting go of the Friends format altogether and proposed that users' entire connections be deleted so that they could rebuild connections. These continued efforts reflect the company's need to stay competitive and relevant in today's digital culture.
