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Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, told CNBC on Monday that he had not heard from CEO Mark Zuckerberg since he had publicly called for the break-up. from the social media giant.
"I always consider him a friend," Hughes said in an interview for "Squawk Box". "I have no personal and negative feelings for Mark."
"The problem is that its power has become too important because we are not regulating our markets properly," Hughes said.
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times in May, "It's time to break with Facebook," Hughes wrote that Zuckerberg and he met for the last time in the summer of 2017, a few just months before the outbreak of the Cambridge Analytica data abuse scandal. Hughes described spending time with Zuckerberg's wife and daughter, discussing politics, work and family life, and then parting ways.
"I have not heard from him since," Hughes told CNBC. "I'm not sure I'll do it."
Zuckerberg and Hughes were roommates at Harvard University, where they created Facebook in 2004. Hughes left Facebook a few years later to participate in Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008.
With his editorial, Hughes joined a growing list of former Facebook executives who publicly voiced their concerns about the company.
"The most problematic aspect of Facebook's power is Mark's one-sided control over speech," wrote Hughes in The Times. "There is no precedent for its ability to monitor, organize and even censor the conversations of two billion people."
Zuckerberg responded to Hughes' article in an interview with French broadcaster France 2. "My main reaction is that what he proposes to do is not going to help."
Hughes told CNBC on Monday that he had already raised issues with Zuckerberg. "I told him a lot of problems here."
Hughes said the government had to separate Facebook from Instagram and WhatsApp – acquired by the social network in 2012 and 2014, respectively. The Federal Trade Commission has approved these two agreements. "The FTC needs to step back and admit that it has made a mistake," he said, adding that a freeze on future acquisitions should also be put in place.
The FTC and Facebook did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
Government agencies and politicians on both sides of the aisle are currently studying Big Tech and anti-competitive practices. The FTC would have badumed jurisdiction over Facebook and Amazon. The Department of Justice reportedly investigated Google's parent company, Alphabet, and was considering a possible investigation of Apple.
Hughes said he had been privately interviewed by "several members of the government" and added that they were currently in the "investigation phase". It's not just a problem and a business that needs to be solved, he said.
"I do not think that one company in particular is perfect here," he said. "They are all too big and we should think about regulating effectively to create more competition." Some companies may need "behavioral remedies" and "structural remedies," he added.
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