'We were a threat to their..': Instagram founder Kevin Systrom accuses Mark Zuckerberg of slowing down Instagram’s growth to protect Facebook

Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom has made serious claims against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the ongoing Meta monopoly trial. Systrom said that Zuckerberg deliberately limited Instagram’s growth because he wanted to protect Facebook.

Systrom testified that in 2017, Instagram was denied extra resources that were crucial for building video tools. He shared that despite asking for 300 additional staff members for video development, they were given none. "We were given zero of 300 incremental video heads, which is an unacceptable and offensive outcome," Systrom said, according to a report by the Financial Times. He added that while companies do make tough decisions, this situation felt different, hinting at favoritism towards Facebook.

Zuckerberg had bought Instagram for USD 1 billion in 2012 when the app was quickly gaining popularity. However, Systrom believes that Zuckerberg, being emotionally attached to Facebook, didn’t want Instagram to surpass it. Systrom mentioned that Zuckerberg might have personally influenced decisions to take away resources from Instagram.

Adding to the concerns, a confidential email from Zuckerberg in 2018 revealed that he talked about slowing down Instagram’s growth to avoid what he called Facebook’s “network collapse.” The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) highlighted this email during the trial, and Systrom supported this claim in his testimony.

Systrom also said that Facebook’s daily active users in the U.S. were dropping, and many inside the company believed Instagram’s rapid success was the reason. He stated, "We were a threat to their growth. If Instagram didn't grow as quickly, Facebook wouldn't shrink or plateau as quickly."

In 2018, Systrom and his co-founder Mike Krieger decided to leave Instagram after Zuckerberg began efforts to merge Instagram with Facebook and WhatsApp, aiming to create a "family of apps."

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg has already testified for over seven hours in the trial. When questioned about buying Instagram to kill competition, Zuckerberg said it was "a reasonable thing to do" rather than building a competing product.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, accuses Meta of creating an illegal monopoly in the social media world by acquiring competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp.