Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes said Friday that his friendship with former colleague Mark Zuckerberg is “probably” finished after calling for his company to be broken up by federal regulators.
“I really don’t know if we’re gonna be friends,” Mr. Hughes told CBS. “Probably not. But there are some friendships where you have disagreements, and big ones, and you still stay friends.”
Mr. Hughes, 35, made the remarks during an interview aired a day after The New York Times published an op-ed in which he urged federal trustbusters and law enforcement officials to hold accountable Mr. Zuckerberg, 34, Facebook’s co-founder and longtime chief executive officer.
“Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” Mr. Hughes wrote in an article advocating for the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to intervene. “It is time to break up Facebook.”
Mr. Hughes helped start the social network with Mr. Zuckerberg in 2004 while both were enrolled at Harvard. Fifteen years later, the company now boasts billions of monthly users through its namesake network and the acquisition of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp.
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications, subsequently issued a statement objecting to breaking up the company through anti-trust action.
“Facebook accepts that with success comes accountability,” Mr. Clegg said. “But you don’t enforce accountability by calling for the breakup of a successful American company. Accountability of tech companies can only be achieved through the painstaking introduction of new rules for the internet.”
Mr. Hughes left Facebook in 2007 and said that he liquidated his shares in the company in 2012. He has been friends with Mr. Zuckerberg for 15 or 16 years, he said on CBS.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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