Coalition demands FTC curb Facebook’s power

Freedom From Facebook, a new coalition, has launched a petition demanding the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) curb Facebook’s power. Specifically, the coalition’s petition urges the regulators to “spin off Instagram, WhatsApps, and Messenger into competing networks, require interoperability, so we have the freedom to communicate across social networks, and impose strong privacy rules that empower and protect us.” You can read the full petition at freedomfromfb.com

The coalition and petition come as concerns over Facebook’s power grow. At a hearing before Congress, Mark Zuckerberg struggled to name a single Facebook competitor. “If I buy a Ford, and it doesn’t work well, and I don’t like it, I can buy a Chevy,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said to Zuckerberg at the hearing. “If I’m upset with Facebook, what’s the equivalent product I can go sign up for,” Graham asked. “You don’t think you have a monopoly?”

Freedom From Facebook’s demand that the company spin off major applications is an attempt to create Facebook competitors.  Founding members of Freedom from Facebook coalition include the Open Markets Institute, Demand Progress, Citizens Against Monopoly, SumOfUs, and MoveOn Civic Action.

Links:

The left turns up the heat to break up Facebook (Axios, May 20, 2018)

Freedom From Facebook website (Freedom From Facebook, May 20, 2018)

In hearings before Congress, Zuckerberg can’t name single Facebook competitor (Speed Matters, Apr. 13, 2018)

CWA files lawsuit against companies for excluding older workers from job ads (Speed Matters, Jan. 2, 2018)