In an op-ed written by the New York Times, one of Facebook's co-founders called for the social network to be broken up. Chris Hughes, who helped Mark Zuckerberg start Facebook 15 years ago while at Harvard, says the Federal Trade Commission should shut down WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook platforms in order to create more competition in social media and messaging apps.
Hughes cites as an economic argument that Facebook has now become a monopoly and that competition is very limited, effectively stopping innovation.
It is impossible for users to switch to an alternative social network because there are no serious competitors.
Hughes reports that no new social networks have been launched since 2011 and that 84% of social media advertising spending is collected directly by Facebook.
But the problem with Facebook goes beyond economics, according to Hughes. The platform's News Feed algorithms dictate the content that millions of people see every day. The content rules it uses also define what is considered hate speech. He also says there is no democratic oversight of Facebook's processes.
Zuckerberg's ownership of the majority of Facebook shares means that there is no internal check on the current CEO's power, and of course, as we all know, there is no government agency dedicated to overseeing a company like Facebook.
Hughes reports:
Mark's influence is staggering, and it's far beyond the influence of anyone else in the private sector or government. He controls three major communication platforms – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – that billions of people use every day.
Only Mark can decide how to set Facebook’s algorithms to determine what users see in their News Feeds, what privacy settings they can use, and what messages get delivered. He sets the rules for how to distinguish between hate speech, violent conversation, or a simple verbal attack, and he can choose to shut down a competitor by acquisition, blocking, or copying.
Mark is a good person, but I'm angry with him because his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and politeness for clicks.
Along with breaking up the company, the Facebook co-founder is calling for the US to create a government agency dedicated to regulating tech companies like Facebook. Hughes says such an agency should be tasked with protecting people’s privacy, but also set guidelines for how Facebook and each Facebook can operate, similar to the regulations the EU has set with GDPR.
With his post, which is worth reading in its entirety, Hughes is reportedly joining a growing number of lawmakers calling for Facebook to be broken up. It’s worth noting that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has said she would break up Facebook’s ilk if elected president in 2020.
