General Should Facebook be broken up?

[John Lee Pettimore]

As a danger to society?

Their algorithm is designed around user engagement. The best way for them to promote use engagement, is to make users angry and polarised. This is baked into Facebook, and cannot be removed.

It seems clear that Facebook is doing real and severe damage to society, and it has grown too big to be effectively challenged.

Should it be broken up, for the good of society?

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[Rambo John J]

It is nasty

 

[John Lee Pettimore]

By "break up Facebook", of course this does not mean "dissolve it completely".

But it is a fair question that between Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus, that the company is simply too dominant over social networking.

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[John Lee Pettimore]

Are there other steps can be taken?

Ban targeted advertising?

Ban the sale of user data to third parties?

Create an online right to privacy law, or a "right to be forgotten" law that allows you to request Facebook etc permanently deletes your account and your existence on their servers?

It is clear that SOMETHING needs to be done. Facebook is completely out of control, and is turning out to be a cancer to society and to democracy in particular.

But what can be done, at this point?

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[John Lee Pettimore]

Whatever can or can't be done, or should or shouldn't, nothing positive will happen while we have 80 year old senators asking Zuckerberg how the hell he even makes money if he doesn't charge to set up a Facebook account.

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[member 3289]

It would be unprecedented afaik.

Companies have been broken up historically when they were deemed to be monopolies (e.g. Standard Oil, American Tobacco, AT&T).

But while Facebook is clearly the market leader, they're not a monopoly.

 

[John Lee Pettimore]

It would be unprecedented afaik.

Companies have been broken up historically when they were deemed to be monopolies (e.g. Standard Oil, American Tobacco, AT&T).

But while Facebook is clearly the market leader, they're not a monopoly.

In the West, they are dominant enough that not being a true monopoly essentially has no meaning.

There are six social networks which have over a billion daily users.

Facebook owns four of them.

The other two are YouTube - which isn't really a social network - and Weixin / WeChat, which doesn't really have a presence in the West.

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[member 3289]

In the West, they are dominant enough that not being a true monopoly essentially has no meaning.

There are six social networks which have over a billion daily users.

Facebook owns four of them.

The other two are YouTube - which isn't really a social network - and Weixin / WeChat, which doesn't really have a presence in the West.

??

TenCent/China will save us!

 

[member 3289]

In the West, they are dominant enough that not being a true monopoly essentially has no meaning.

There are six social networks which have over a billion daily users.

Facebook owns four of them.

The other two are YouTube - which isn't really a social network - and Weixin / WeChat, which doesn't really have a presence in the West.

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Are you including WhatsApp in those 4? Because I wouldn't call them a social network either. Definitely less of a social network than YouTube imo.

 

[John Lee Pettimore]

Are you including WhatsApp in those 4? Because I wouldn't call them a social network either. Definitely less of a social network than YouTube imo.

Yep, WhatsApp and Instagram are both in there. Whether they are a pure social network or not, they are owned by Facebook and they are hoovering up data about every single thing you do online, and sending it to Zuckerberg.

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[member 3289]

Yep, WhatsApp and Instagram are both in there. Whether they are a pure social network or not, they are owned by Facebook and they are hoovering up data about every single thing you do online, and sending it to Zuckerberg.

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Instagram is absolutely a social network. WhatsApp not so much.

But your point about the company having such wide access to user data is valid regardless.

 

[TheFifthScallop]

People should just stop using Facebook. It’s absolute garbage. Since I quit using Facebook about 3 years, my life has improved. Coincidence? I think not!

 

[kneeblock]

Whatever can or can't be done, or should or shouldn't, nothing positive will happen while we have 80 year old senators asking Zuckerberg how the hell he even makes money if he doesn't charge to set up a Facebook account.

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This is actually the most important question a senator can publicly ask because most people also have no idea.

 

[kneeblock]

Are you including WhatsApp in those 4? Because I wouldn't call them a social network either. Definitely less of a social network than YouTube imo.

WhatsApp is a social network and their continued branding as a "messaging service" is what obfuscates what's actually going on on the platform via massive groups.

 

[SongExotic2]

WhatsApp is a social network and their continued branding as a "messaging service" is what obfuscates what's actually going on on the platform via massive groups.

Stop making words up

 

[member 3289]

WhatsApp is a social network and their continued branding as a "messaging service" is what obfuscates what's actually going on on the platform via massive groups.

Without getting into the million different definitions of what constitutes a social network, you think having groups qualifies them?

 

[SongExotic2]

WhatsApp is just a messaging service. It does the same as a text message but uses data instead of whatever the fuck a phone uses without it.

 

[kneeblock]

Without getting into the million different definitions of what constitutes a social network, you think having groups qualifies them?

Social network is just a term from sociology that means people you are connected to as strong or weak ties. There aren't a million definitions. In this case, any member of the user base can connect to any other so long as they use a process of authentication, namely their phone number instead of a username and password (though you can also use whatsapp on a computer). Now with the expansion and promotion of groups that have scaled to hundreds (officially) and thousands (unofficially) of members, WhatsApp has made itself less distinguishable from more conventionally understood social media services.

Facebook continues to label it a messaging service because that's its primary attraction, but its where a lot of disinformation thrives these days.