Even one of its co-founders knows it’s time to break-up Facebook

Chris Hughes, who co-founded Facebook along with its current CEO Mark Zuckerberg, published an op-ed in the New York Times calling on the government to break-up Facebook. He argued that Facebook has become far too large and powerful, controlling information and the data of billions of users, threatening our democracy. And, however well-intentioned his friend Mark, Facebook’s CEO is currently accountable to no one. The government must act.

“The government must hold Mark [Zuckerberg] accountable,” Hughes writes. “For too long, lawmakers have marveled at Facebook’s explosive growth and overlooked their responsibility to ensure that Americans are protected and markets are competitive. Any day now, the Federal Trade Commission is expected to impose a $5 billion fine on the company, but that is not enough; nor is Facebook’s offer to appoint some kind of privacy czar.”

“It is time to break up Facebook,” Hughes concludes. “We already have the tools we need to check the domination of Facebook. We just seem to have forgotten about them.”

CWA and other members of the Freedom from Facebook coalition have been ringing this alarm for months. The coalition demands the FTC curb Facebook’s power, urging regulators to spin off Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger into competing networks, require interoperability, and impose strong privacy rules that empower and protect users.

Links:

It’s Time to Break Up Facebook (New York Times, May 9, 2019)

CWA joins Freedom From Facebook coalition (Speed Matters, July 9, 2018)

Facebook under renewed scrutiny over privacy violations and data sharing (Speed Matters, Jan. 15, 2019)