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Break Up Facebook?


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What is your vision for how a break-up might work or look? What might result? Can it even be done in the modern global tech economy? Does the USA have the power or authority to do so? Would it be good or bad for the USA, the world? This comes on the heels of Google's announcement that it is shutting down G+. If Google can't compete, can anyone?

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What is your vision for how a break-up might work or look? What might result? Can it even be done in the modern global tech economy? Does the USA have the power or authority to do so? Would it be good or bad for the USA, the world? This comes on the heels of Google's announcement that it is shutting down G+. If Google can't compete, can anyone?

 

 

My understanding is that Google creates a bunch of stuff (whatever G+ is, is an example) and they never quite figure out what they want it to be and it fizzles and they end it. But they learn something in the process and harvest a lot of data. I had someone send me a G+ request, once. Once.

 

I resisted FB for a long time, I wish I could quit it now, but for all the bad, stupid, wrong, politics or look at me, there's still stuff I want to see. Blah.

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It will be an interesting test of anti-trust law which until now focused on the effect of consumer prices when considering any merger ... which is a bit difficult when the service is "free".

 

Yet there is no question that the combination of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger creates a mega-company who's monopoly is greater than the Bell Systems's stranglehold on telecommunications up through the mid 70's.

 

Hard to see a societal downside of a breakup, but the political alignments on either side of the argument will be interesting.

 

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With huge multinational corporations, we need international antitrust laws and enforcement to prevent both monopolies and excessive political influence.

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I think a case could be made that the means already exist, but that regulators simply made a bad ruling by allowing the mergers. Regulators have little concept of the social media landscape and how it works as evidenced by much of the reasoning given to allow the mergers in the first place.

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Facebook is a tool for many uses. We need to educate the people that are going to use so they can walk away from it as thinking people and not sponges to absorb the force feeding it provides for any view point. Remember, FB is a place where people post or repost statements about which they really do not want feedback on, only agreement.

Then there are also the people that post what is happening in their lives. Some go overboard, others rarely post.

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It really is staggering to see the true global reach of Facebook. It, along with Twitter and the underlying expansion of the internet, has had the greatest sociological, psychological, political and cultural impact on humans since the invention of moveable type. And mostly not for good. There are exceptions, but ....

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From a users standpoint FB is essentially a free service I am not sure if the word monopoly applies.

 

From an advertisers view their are too many options to compare so I am not sure how the case could be made.

 

IMO Amazon could be the first victim of the new age Trust Busters.

 

YMMV

 

 

 

 

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Joe Frickin' Friday
Does the USA have the power or authority to do so?

 

I'm not a business expert, but I would guess not. ISTM that anti-trust laws are only invoked in regards to business mergers/monopolies, and as chrisolson notes upthread, Facebook's interactions with its members aren't really what anti-trust laws are designed to deal with. I think the only kind of monopoly for which you could legally invoke anti-trust laws to break up Facebook would be if it dominated too much of the advertising market. And that seems unlikely to me, since there are like a gazillion other places for advertising, both on and off the internet.

 

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I'm startin Buttbook, because there sure are a lot of a$@#*^%! opinions on FB.

 

FB has changed how many people communicate.

What they communicate is another story.

 

Until something better, not just a different FB platform, but "better" as in how it does what it does,

maybe flawless voice integration with all nuances etc easily conveyed.

 

Add the optional implant and go handsfree...

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Does the USA have the power or authority to do so?

 

I'm not a business expert, but I would guess not. ISTM that anti-trust laws are only invoked in regards to business mergers/monopolies, and as chrisolson notes upthread, Facebook's interactions with its members aren't really what anti-trust laws are designed to deal with. I think the only kind of monopoly for which you could legally invoke anti-trust laws to break up Facebook would be if it dominated too much of the advertising market. And that seems unlikely to me, since there are like a gazillion other places for advertising, both on and off the internet.

 

It would obviously require new legislation.

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It's probably a good time to throw in this reminder regarding online services:

 

if you aren't paying for the product, you ARE the product.

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