Mark Zuckerberg considered Instagram spin-off amid 'calls to break up' Big Tech

Alexis Keenan Tue, April 15, 2025 at 5:04

(The worst liar ever)

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave thought to spinning off Instagram as Big Tech antitrust scrutiny intensified, according to a 2018 memo that surfaced Tuesday as Zuckerberg took the stand to defend his company against claims that Meta illegally dominated social media.

"I wonder if we should consider the extreme step of spinning Instagram out as a separate company," Zuckerberg said in the memo shown on the second day of a trial pitting Meta against President Trump's Federal Trade Commission.

"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," Zuckerberg wrote in 2018 to other executives, according to Reuters.

The FTC is now asking for D.C. federal district court Judge James Boasberg as part of this new antitrust trial to force Meta (META) to sell off Instagram as well as its messaging service, WhatsApp.

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 14: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg departs E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House on April 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has begun an antitrust trial against Meta over the company's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and allegations that the company holds a monopoly over the social networking market.

Instagram became a central topic for Zuckerberg as he spent his second day on the witness stand answering numerous questions from government prosecutors and being confronted with his past words and documents.

In a 2012 email, Zuckerberg told Facebook’s then-CFO, David Ebersman, that a purchase of Instagram and other startups could be looked at as a way for Facebook to buy time.

“Even if some new competitor springs up, buying Instagram, Path, Foursquare etc. now will give us a year or more to integrate their dynamics before anyone can get close to their scale again,” Zuckerberg wrote, according to an account of the testimony reported by Bloomberg.

Zuckerberg agreed under questioning by the FTC’s attorney that buying Instagram was intended to “neutralize a competitor,” but he added that the purchase was also meant to boost Facebook’s quality and functionality.

​​“I read this as talking about incorporating the functionality and staying ahead in terms of quality. But scale is one aspect of that, and time is one aspect of that,” Zuckerberg testified, according to Bloomberg.

“It’s not accurate to say that the only reason we were interested was the scale or growth rate, which I think that your question is implying.”

Zuckerberg told the court that Facebook’s interest in Instagram was also tied to its struggle to build its own photo-sharing app.

While the company was analyzing building versus buying a camera app, he said he thought Instagram was “better at that, so I thought it was better to buy them."

"Building a new app is hard,” Zuckerberg testified, “and many more times than not when we have tried to build a new app, it hasn't gotten a lot of traction.”

Mark Z is fucked and he knows it, shouldn’t have spent $23 million on a DC to be close to the WH

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-considered-instagram-spin-off-amid-calls-to-break-up-big-tech-210416345.html

I really despise this liar! If he had a soul he lost it a long time ago!

>>22916833

It was actually Joe Bidan’s anti trust suit, Joe started it and Trump are letting them go ahead. Remember Mark approved removing the President of the U.S. on FB when he was still in office. Mark do you really think Trump is motivated by your donations? You gave $3 or $4 million to defeat him in 2020 and you only donated to Trump’s fund at $1 million, don’t you think that sends a message of hatred to the current President. Mark must be a robot with no AI abilities

Oldest known survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack dies at age 106

"To us, he was more than a hero," Vaughn P. Drake Jr.'s son said.

April 15, 2025, 4:01 PM ET

Vaughn P. Drake Jr., a Kentuckian believed to be the oldest survivor of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, has died at the age of 106, according to his family.

Drake passed away on April 7 in the Lexington, Kentucky, area, where he grew up, according to his obituary published on the website of the Milward Funeral Home in Lexington.

"My father never sought the spotlight, but he understood the importance of remembering and honoring history," Drake's 74-year-old son, Samuel Drake, of Lexington, said in a statement shared with ABC News on Tuesday by Military Missions, a Kentucky organization with which he's affiliated that provides care packages to U.S. military members stationed overseas.

Pacific Historic Park, a nonprofit group supporting historical sites in the Pacific, including Pearl Harbor, said in a Facebook post that Drake "was the oldest known Pearl Harbor survivor."

"He was proud of his service and proud to be part of a generation that stood up in defense of freedom," Samuel Drake, a Vietnam War veteran, said of his father. "To us, he was more than a hero; he was a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather, and a humble man who lived with integrity every single day."

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Vaughn Drake was a 23-year-old member of the Army Corps of Engineers at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when a large squadron of Japanese military aircraft attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet there.

"We were still in the barracks when they first hit," Drake recalled in a 2016 interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader. "We were getting ready to go to breakfast, and we heard all these planes flying over and making a lot of noise."

Drake said he initially thought U.S. military aircraft were conducting practice maneuvers over Oahu "until we saw a bomb hit one of the buildings over in the Kaneohe Naval Air Station and smoke rose up."

"We knew by then it was more than just maneuvers," Drake said. "It had to be a real attack. It just didn't seem possible. No one could possibly believe that such a thing could happen and even when it was happening we didn't believe it."

The surprise attack, launched from Japanese aircraft carriers 230 miles north of Oahu, killed 2,390 American service members and civilians, according to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial website. More than 20 U.S. naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 American airplanes were either destroyed or damaged in the attack.

The attack prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask Congress to declare war on Japan, which marked the United States' entry into World War II. In a famous speech before a joint session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, Roosevelt described the attack as "a day that will live in infamy."

"I do feel like a part of history," Drake told the Herald-Leader in the 2016 interview. "I haven't made it the big thing in my life."

In a social media post on Tuesday, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton wrote, "We have lost an amazing hero in Vaughn Drake, Jr. Our city, state, and country will be forever grateful for his military service."

Following Pearl Harbor, Drake fought in the Battle of Saipan in 1944 and later that year in the Marianas Campaign, which the National Parks Service said was the "most decisive battle of the Pacific Theater" during World War II.

Drake was awarded the special Congressional Medal for the Veterans of Pearl Harbor, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Medal with Foreign Service bar, the Asiatic-Pacific Medal with two battles stars, and the World War II Victory Medal, according to his obituary.

Following World War II, Drake,who was born in Winchester, Kentucky, on Nov. 6, 1918, attended the University of Kentucky College of Engineering and worked as a registered professional engineer for more than 50 years, according to his obituary.He retired in 1981 from the General Telephone Company, where he worked as a valuation engineering manager, supervising the construction of underground telephone conduits in and around Lexington, his obituary said.

Drake was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Lina Wilson Drake. He is survived by his son, two grandsons and three great-grandchildren, according to his obituary.

Drake is scheduled to be buried on Thursday following a military service at the Winchester Cemetery near Lexington.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/oldest-survivor-pearl-harbor-attack-dies-age-106/story?id=120820811

God Bless This Hero, May He Rest in Peace and have a Party in Heaven

>>22916900

FDR knew the attack was coming on Pearl Harbor and he let it happen. Fuck FDRand all the inestimable harm he did to the U.S., Fucking evil people.

>>22916899

My Mother loved Patsy Cline! That was her era.

>>22916854

I seem to remember that, was Jack involved? Cannibals and Criminals. Mark was one that never could be forgiven or a pardon. Jack is assigned to hell with weirdos like him

>>22916463 China Starts Losing It Over Trump Tariffs — Communist Apparatchik Warns Those ‘American Peasants Will Suffer’Present Notable

OMG China didn’t know what Trump would do, or who he is; they expected Trump would say Xi and I are friends and we can work things out. Thats why they are freaked out, they couldn’t read him for years.

How none of the Tariff plan wasn’t leaked is almost unbelievable.China might turn into the Dragon but Trump was always Sun Tzu, always.

The reason the China leaders are so freaked is because their economy has been on the edge of the three River damns for years, and because they never knew who he was and is! ==Trump is not the Apprentice, he’s always been the Master. But not the Boss of the show, the Master!=+

Recently he was asked if he trusted anyone,Trump forcefully said, I don’t trust anyone

Can you imagine Trump being able to present as someone that could be tricked. Maybe he’s a good actor

>>22917071

All the sleepers there watched their buddy get tased.they said No Way I’m going to interrupt now. KEK

Bill Maher on the Trump Indictments and the 2024 Election

8:32

Maher is so wrong. Joe is so balanced

https://rumble.com/embed/v3bnv25/?pub=4

Citizen Free Press

@CitizenFreePres

His masterful Chicago Speech

BRAND NEW SPEECH – JOE BIDEN NEVER DISAPPOINTS.

0:08 / 0:14

From Bad Hombre

9:26 PM · Apr 15, 2025

·

13.4K

Views

He did it againOMG

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1912316534464065587

They always have to FAFO

Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹@saras76

These retards love looking for trouble. MTG had the best group of cops on duty at her Town hall. No bullshit tolerated.

Hope you enjoyed that taser, jackass

From

Nick Sortor

6:51 PM · Apr 15, 2025

·

20K

Views

https://x.com/saras76/status/1912277606650785930

1:19

Laura Ingraham

INGRAHAM ANGLE EXCLUSIVE: (I’m kekking my ass off)

GW Law Prof Jonathan Turley on shocking Letitia James allegations: 'The irony is crushing. James prosecuted Trump for misleading financial statements, yet now faces similar questions about residency claims and loan applications. DOJ has prosecuted others for falsely claiming properties as principal residences. Rules apparently don't apply to those enforcing them.'"

1. Prof. Turley: 'This is really for James, the very case that she most famously brought.She insisted that these technicalities matter and that the powerful should not be given a free pass. Well, that bill has come due in this case…

I'm honestly just not sure how you defend against this unless you say that these are fraudulent documents.'"

Federal Housing Finance Agency sends criminal referral to DOJ against NY Attorney General Letitia Jamesfor alleged mortgage fraud.

(From what so found there is more mortgage fraud to come)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1912291315464753654.html#google_vignette

‘Most People Fired Me.’ Tucker Carlson Opens Up 2 Years After Fox Breakup

4/15/25

It has been two years since Tucker Carlson answered a call on a Monday morning in late April to learn that Fox News had canceled his show.

“I got fired from Fox for saying things they didn't like,” Carlson told The Daily Signal during an exclusive interview at The Heritage Foundation's Annual Leadership Conference.

“That's all right, you know, it's not my company,” Carlson said of his ousting from Fox, adding, “I wasn't one of those people like, ‘you can't fire me.’ It's like, of course you can fire me!”

Fox was not the first major network to end its relationship with Carlson.

“I got fired once for low ratings [and] once for being kind of a lunatic,” Carlson said. The political commentator worked at CNN and MSNBC before later going on to work at Fox News.

Looking back on his more than two decades working at Fox News, Carlson said, “I would always say to Fox, ‘I'm not going to take instruction, I mean, you hired me to get decent ratings, I've done that. If you don't like what I say, you can take me off the air, but you're not going to control my show, just fire me.’ … And that seemed like that had always been our deal.”

After spending about 30 years working in the world of cabal news, Carlson said, “I liked everyone I worked for, including the people who fired me.”

Since his breakup with Fox News, Carlson started his own company and launched a YouTube channel, which now has nearly 4 million subscribers, where he shares multiple video interviews each week.

Carlson hosts a wide range of guests on his show. Between March 5—March 7, Carson released interview with Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently in prison for fraud, Jonathan Roumie, who play Jesus in “The Chosen,” and Qatar Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

“I have varied interests, you know, but I'm interested in people,” Carlson said.

While Carlson said he could have retired after losing his job at Fox News and pursued his passions for trout fishing, bird hunting, carpentry, his love of people kept him in the news and political commentary space.

“But I really love talking to people. I like learning—that sounds like BS, but it's actually fully sincere. And I love that more than I love money. I would do that for free,” he said.

Tune in to find out what happens next.

7:53

https://youtu.be/agqulMZCFoE

Gutfeld: The media is creating a ‘new phantom scare’ around the 'manosphere'

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld and the ‘Gutfeld!’ panel unpack an MSNBC anchor’s argument that tariffs are emasculating.

16:07

https://youtu.be/hm0vDxFGyUM