Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom testified in a court case against Meta, revealing a contentious relationship with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Systrom claimed that Zuckerberg withheld critical resources from Instagram and constrained its growth to avoid harming Facebook’s engagement. Despite this, Systrom maintained that Instagram’s success was largely due to the platform’s own momentum, not Facebook’s support.
Systrom described how he and Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger quit in 2018 after growing frustrated with Zuckerberg’s meddling in their operations. The testimony contradicts Zuckerberg’s previous claims that Instagram would not have succeeded without his help. An internal chart from 2018 showed that Instagram experienced growth despite feature integrations with Facebook, supporting Systrom’s assertion.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/policy/654069/instagram-co-founder-zuckerberg-saw-us-as-a-threat-to-facebook