Mark Zuckerberg Reportedly Eyed Instagram Spinoff In 2018 Fearing Antitrust Regulator’s Backlash

Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly considered spinning off the company’s video-sharing app Instagram in 2018 fearing antitrust concerns.

The revelation came via an email presented by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) during the second day of Zuckerberg’s testimony in the antitrust trial with the federal regulator.

The trial is ongoing in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia and concerns Facebook’s alleged personal social networking monopoly through “years-long course of anticompetitive conduct” and its acquisition of smaller rivals such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

In the 2018 email shared by FTC’s lawyers, Zuckerberg said, “And I'm beginning to wonder whether spinning Instagram out is the only structure that will accomplish a number of important goals,” CNBC reported.

“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. This is one more factor we should consider.”

Meta, which was then called Facebook, bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion in cash and stock.

While testifying on Tuesday, the Meta chief said the decision to buy Instagram came after its attempts to build dozens of apps did not succeed, New York Times reported.

“Building an app is hard. We could have built an app,” he said, adding “Whether it succeeded or not is a matter of speculation.”

Zuckerberg, however, dodged questions regarding whether his intent while buying Instagram was to take out competitions.

If the FTC is successful in the case, the government will likely force a breakup of Meta, requesting the sale of Instagram and WhatsApp.

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