Instagram co-founder testifies that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stifled Instagram’s growth to shield Facebook

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom painted a critical portrait of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his testimony in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit aimed at breaking up Meta, alleging that Zuckerberg deliberately stifled Instagram’s growth to protect Facebook.

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

“We were a threat to their growth,” Systrom testified. “If Instagram didn’t grow as quickly, Facebook wouldn’t shrink as quickly, or plateau as quickly.”

The testimony came as the FTC pursues a case to unwind Meta’s acquisitions of both Instagram and WhatsApp. According to Systrom, Zuckerberg’s pattern of withholding resources from Instagram, including engineering talent and integration tools, was part of a strategy to avoid cannibalising Facebook’s user engagement.

Systrom recalled that shortly before he and co-founder Mike Krieger resigned in 2018, Zuckerberg pulled support for key features that promoted Instagram within Facebook. The internal rationale, he claimed, was to curb Instagram’s rise at Facebook’s expense.

“He was very happy to have Instagram in the family,” Systrom said. “But also, I think as the founder of Facebook, he felt a lot of emotion around which one was better… I think there were real human emotional things going on.”

In one striking example, Systrom revealed that during Facebook’s massive pivot to video, Zuckerberg allocated 300 employees to the effort on Facebook, while Instagram got none. Even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when Meta pledged billions for user safety, Systrom said Instagram received “zero” of those resources directly.

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

Systrom’s appearance follows that of Zuckerberg, who testified last week that Instagram’s success would not have been possible without Meta’s infrastructure. The conflicting accounts now lie at the heart of the FTC’s attempt to prove that Meta maintained its market dominance through anti-competitive conduct, not merit.

As the courtroom showdown continues, it offers a rare inside look at the tensions between two of Silicon Valley’s most powerful founders—and the future of Meta’s empire may hinge on whose version of history the court believes.

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