{"id":663989,"date":"2025-04-20T18:10:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T18:10:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:10:20","slug":"uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncovered emails showed how Meta struggled to keep Facebook culturally relevant"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a35abe760a03\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a35abe760a03\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant\/#Concerns_around_Facebook_losing_cultural_relevance\" >Concerns around Facebook losing cultural relevance<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant\/#Worrying_that_Facebooks_%E2%80%9Cfriending%E2%80%9D_structure_is_outdated\" >Worrying that Facebook\u2019s \u201cfriending\u201d structure is outdated<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant\/#Proposed_solutions\" >Proposed solutions<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the first week of Meta\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/legal-library\/browse\/cases-proceedings\/191-0134-facebook-inc-ftc-v-ftc-v-meta-platforms-inc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">antitrust trial<\/a> behind us, documents shared by the U.S Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offered more insight into Meta\u2019s internal struggles to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> relevant. In emails from 2022, Meta executives mulled different visions for Facebook\u2019s future to boost its success, acknowledging that its cultural relevance was decreasing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fast-forward to 2025, and Meta is still gr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ling with this issue. Mark Zuckerberg said during the company\u2019s Q4 earnings call in January that the company wants to restore Facebook\u2019s cultural relevance this year with a return to \u201cOG Facebook.\u201d Part of its solution for this problem is the recent launch of a revamped Friends tab.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of messages from April 2022, which were shared as evidence during the trial, Zuckerberg discussed concerns about Facebook\u2019s \u201cFriends\u201d structure and format being outdated as every other major platform focused on \u201cFollowing.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He considered ditching the Friends format and even suggested deleting everyone\u2019s Facebook friends and having them start again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the highlights from Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s emails are below. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-concerns-around-facebook-losing-cultural-relevance\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Concerns_around_Facebook_losing_cultural_relevance\"><\/span>Concerns around Facebook losing cultural relevance<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cI want to make sure we have a unique vision for the FB app that can lead to sustainable growth over time. Even though the FB app\u2019s engagement is steady in many places, it feels like its cultural relevance is decreasing quickly and I worry that this may be a leading indicator of future health issues. Even if IG and WA do well, I don\u2019t see a path for our company to succeed in the way we need if FB falters, so we need to get this right.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cMy theory is that we need to refresh the graph structure of FB in order for it to gain cultural relevance and a better long term path.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cI think we need to find a strategy that doesn\u2019t leave one service picking up the scraps the other service leaves behind or having either service artificially or unreasonably constrain itself. Right now IG is doing well on cultural relevance and FB isn\u2019t, so I\u2019m more focused on figuring out a reasonable path for FB longer term.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-worrying-that-facebook-s-friending-structure-is-outdated\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Worrying_that_Facebooks_%E2%80%9Cfriending%E2%80%9D_structure_is_outdated\"><\/span>Worrying that Facebook\u2019s \u201cfriending\u201d structure is outdated<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cThe FB app owns the concept of friending, so if there were a way to freshen this up and make it a more relevant part of life in the 2020s then this could be a good path.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cFriending feels out of vogue right now for at least a few reasons. First, a lot of people\u2019s friend graphs are stale and not filled with the people they want to hear from or connect with. Second, it feels heavyweight to request someone new as a friend, which makes it hard to rectify the first issue. Most of the time when I meet someone or become interested in someone I just want to follow them first but not ask anything of them. Third, and related,<strong> <\/strong>since FB doesn\u2019t feel as culturally relevant, that adds further weight to adding some on FB vs other services.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cIt feels to me like the FB app\u2019s position in cultural relevance is deeply tied to the friend graph structure as opposed to other organizing principles \u2014 for example, IG\/Twitter-style follow graphs, TikTok-style pure algorithmic approach, Groups\/Reddit-style communities, etc.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-proposed-solutions\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Proposed_solutions\"><\/span>Proposed solutions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cEvery other modern social network is built on following rather than friending, so its seems possible that the FB app is just outdated because it never adopted this fundamental innovation. The way to rectify this would be to fully adopt following. If we wanted to do this, I don\u2019t think that simply supporting following for public accounts would be sufficient. I think we\u2019d have to switch from friending to following on private accounts as well (even though this would work similarly for those accounts) and we\u2019d probably want to get rid of the concept of liking pages as well.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">\u201cOne potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone\u2019s graphs and having them start again. This obviously carries the risk that if we did that then a lot of people just wouldn\u2019t rebuild their graphs or would become less engaged, so if we wanted to consider this we\u2019d have to build out an experiment and test it in a smaller country to make sure it led to a positive result. I think we\u2019d need to do something relatively extreme like this to move the needle though and I don\u2019t think small things like spring cleaning flows would move the needle.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/04\/20\/uncovered-emails-showed-how-meta-struggled-to-keep-facebook-culturally-relevant\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the first week of Meta\u2019s antitrust trial behind us, documents shared by the U.S Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offered more insight into Meta\u2019s internal struggles to keep Facebook relevant. In emails from 2022, Meta executives mulled different visions for Facebook\u2019s future to boost its success, acknowledging that its cultural relevance was decreasing.\u00a0 Fast-forward to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":663990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/facebook-logo-on-phone.jpg?resize=1200,800","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[122306,4974,5077,31059],"class_list":["post-663989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-meta","tag-facebook","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}