Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg floated the idea of spinning off Instagram in 2018, seeing it as a possible way to avoid antitrust scrutiny.

Meta is currently in a legal battled with the Federal Trade Commission, with the agency looking to force Meta to sell off Instagram and/or WhatsApp. As it turn out, Zuckerberg was concerned about this eventuality, highlighting it as a reason to consider preemptively spinning off Instagram.

“And i’m beginning to wonder whether spinning Instagram out is the the only structure that will accomplish a number of important goals,” Zuckerberg wrote in the email, courtesy of CNBC. “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.”

Facebook, now Meta, purchased Instagram in 2012 for $ billion, followed by WhatsApp in 2024 for $19 billion. The FTC is trying to make the case that those acquisitions have enabled Meta to illegally dominate the social media market. The company is arguing that it faces plenty of competition, not the least of which from rival TikTok.

Zuckerberg’s email could be particularly damning, however, as it clearly demonstrates that Meta knew the potential antitrust implications of maintaining ownership of Instagram, yet chose to ignore them and proceed with business as usual.

Ultimately, the outcome of the trial could forever change the social media landscape, as well as have broader implications for Big Tech companies.