(Originally Published May 9, 2019)
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughs has penned a very long editorial calling for the break up of Facebook into its constituent parts of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
I personally doubt if breaking up Facebook will solve many of the privacy and speech concerns that Hughs brings up, as real and important as those concerns are. Similar issues face smaller social media companies like Twitter.
More important, in my opinion, is regulation of the Tech companies, as Hughs also calls for later in his article. Such regulation would allow the government to rule on free speech issues on social networks, which would have to include how the algorithms prioritize information in the feeds. That would also force Facebook and other social media companies to be more transparent in how they are influencing our media diets and give consumers greater ability to decide whether and how much to use Facebook and other social media companies.
Regulation would also have to rule on privacy issues: What kind of data can be stored and used by the social network, whether and how it can be shared with third parties, and what the social network is obligated to share about its practices with its users.
I think transparency by Facebook and the knowledge that they and other social networks are being monitored by competent government agencies would go a long way in alleviating the worst practices of Facebook and other social media giants.
I am not necessarily against breaking Facebook up. I think that would generate more entrepreneurship, innovation and competition. However, Hughs seems more concerned about Facebook’s influence over the minds of its users, privacy concerns and free speech issues. Those problems would be better solved through effective regulation, not breaking them up.
Recent Comments