Instagram Co-founder Testifies That Meta Ceo Mark Zuckerberg Stifled Instagram’s Growth To Shield Facebook

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom painted a captious image of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his grounds successful nan Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust suit aimed astatine breaking up Meta, alleging that Zuckerberg deliberately stifled Instagram’s maturation to protect Facebook.

Speaking connected Tuesday from a Washington, D.C. courtroom, Systrom said that while Instagram has reached billions of users and delivered immense returns since its $1 cardinal acquisition successful 2012, its trajectory was many times hindered by Zuckerberg’s decisions.

“We were a threat to their growth,” Systrom testified. “If Instagram didn’t turn arsenic quickly, Facebook wouldn’t shrink arsenic quickly, aliases plateau arsenic quickly.”

The grounds came arsenic nan FTC pursues a lawsuit to unwind Meta’s acquisitions of some Instagram and WhatsApp. According to Systrom, Zuckerberg’s shape of withholding resources from Instagram, including engineering talent and integration tools, was portion of a strategy to debar cannibalising Facebook’s personification engagement.

Systrom recalled that soon earlier he and co-founder Mike Krieger resigned successful 2018, Zuckerberg pulled support for cardinal features that promoted Instagram wrong Facebook. The soul rationale, he claimed, was to curb Instagram’s emergence astatine Facebook’s expense.

“He was very happy to person Instagram successful nan family,” Systrom said. “But also, I deliberation arsenic nan laminitis of Facebook, he felt a batch of emotion astir which 1 was better… I deliberation location were existent quality affectional things going on.”

In 1 striking example, Systrom revealed that during Facebook’s monolithic pivot to video, Zuckerberg allocated 300 labor to nan effort connected Facebook, while Instagram sewage none. Even aft nan Cambridge Analytica scandal, erstwhile Meta pledged billions for personification safety, Systrom said Instagram received “zero” of those resources directly.

During cross-examination, Meta’s lawyer Kevin Huff challenged Systrom’s claims by presenting an aged email successful which Systrom credited Facebook integrations for Instagram’s growth. Asked whether he had lied to Zuckerberg successful that message, Systrom gave only a terse response: “Sir.”

Systrom’s quality follows that of Zuckerberg, who testified past week that Instagram’s occurrence would not person been imaginable without Meta’s infrastructure. The conflicting accounts now dishonesty astatine nan bosom of nan FTC’s effort to beryllium that Meta maintained its marketplace power done anti-competitive conduct, not merit.

As nan courtroom showdown continues, it offers a uncommon wrong look astatine nan tensions betwixt 2 of Silicon Valley’s astir powerful founders—and nan early of Meta’s empire whitethorn hinge connected whose type of history nan tribunal believes.

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Tags: FTC Meta trial, Kevin Systrom vs Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram Facebook antitrust, Instagram assets withholding, Meta breakup lawsuit, Instagram WhatsApp spin-off