As the first week of Meta's antitrust trial comes to a close, documents shared by the U.S Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have shed light on the company's internal struggles to revive Facebook's cultural relevance. Emails from 2022, shared as evidence during the trial, reveal that Meta executives were grappling with the platform's decreasing popularity and exploring radical solutions to turn things around.

In the emails, Mark Zuckerberg expressed concerns about Facebook's "friending" structure, suggesting that it may be outdated and contributing to the platform's decline. He proposed ditching the Friends format and even considered deleting everyone's Facebook friends, forcing users to start again. This drastic measure, Zuckerberg believed, could be the only way to revitalize the platform and make it relevant again.

Zuckerberg's concerns about Facebook's cultural relevance are not new. During the company's Q4 earnings call in January, he stated that Meta wants to restore Facebook's cultural relevance this year with a return to "OG Facebook." The recent launch of a revamped Friends tab is part of this effort. However, the emails reveal that the company's struggles to revamp Facebook date back to at least 2022, when Zuckerberg was already worried about the platform's future.

In the emails, Zuckerberg discussed the need for Facebook to refresh its "graph structure" to gain cultural relevance and a better long-term path. He believed that the platform's "friending" structure was outdated, citing the success of other social media platforms that focus on "following" rather than "friending." Zuckerberg suggested that Facebook's failure to adopt this fundamental innovation may be contributing to its decline.

Zuckerberg's proposed solutions were radical, to say the least. He suggested fully adopting a "following" model, even for private accounts, and getting rid of the concept of liking pages. He also floated the idea of wiping everyone's friend graphs and having them start again, a move that would come with significant risks, including the possibility of users becoming less engaged.

The emails provide a rare glimpse into Meta's internal struggles and the challenges it faces in revamping Facebook. As the company continues to grapple with declining user engagement and increasing competition from other social media platforms, it remains to be seen whether Zuckerberg's proposed solutions will be enough to restore Facebook's cultural relevance.

The antitrust trial, which is expected to continue for several weeks, will likely shed more light on Meta's internal workings and the company's efforts to maintain its dominance in the social media landscape. As the trial unfolds, one thing is clear: Meta's struggles to revive Facebook are far from over, and the company's future success hangs in the balance.