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Facebook co-founder: Break up social media giant

Thursday, 09 May 2019 2:02 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 09 May 2019 3:17 PM ]

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One of Facebook’s co-founders has called CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s power “unprecedented and un-American,” adding that Facebook should be broken up into multiple companies.

In an article for The New York Times on Thursday, Chris Hughes wrote that Zuckerberg has a “staggering” influence at the company, which controls three major platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

He pointed out that Zuckerberg controls around 60 percent of voting shares for Facebook’s board, giving him enormous control over algorithms, privacy settings and “even which messages get delivered."

He wrote that he feels a “sense of anger and responsibility” for Facebook’s wrongs.

“We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well intentioned the leaders of these companies may be. Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” Hughes wrote.

“The company’s mistakes — the sloppy privacy practices that dropped tens of millions of users’ data into a political consulting firm’s lap; the slow response to Russian agents, violent rhetoric and fake news; and the unbounded drive to capture ever more of our time and attention — dominate the headlines,” Hughes wrote.

Hughes wrote that Zuckerberg’s “focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility or clicks.”

“I don’t blame Mark for his quest for domination. He has demonstrated nothing more nefarious than the virtuous hustle of a talented entrepreneur,” Hughes wrote. “Yet he has created a leviathan that crowds out entrepreneurship and restricts consumer choice. It’s on our government to ensure that we never lose the magic of the invisiblehand. How did we allow this to happen?”

Hughes wrote that Facebook should be separated into several companies and asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department to enforce antitrust laws by cancelling the social media giant’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.

“The cost of breaking up Facebook would be next to zero for the government, and lots of people stand to gain economically,” he said. “A ban on short-term acquisitions would ensure that competitors, and the investors who take a bet on them, would have the space to flourish. Digital advertisers would suddenly have multiple companies vying for their dollars.”

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