Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#11

Post by barkingtoad » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:32 AM UTC

downer61 wrote: post #2

This is basically the worst possible course of action. Facebook is neither a utility nor monopoly. Facebook will be irrelevant in a generation or less. Even if Facebook manages to leverage the network effect of its alternative subsidiaries, there will always be the treadmill of evolving trends, and there’s not such thing as one true mode of electronic social interaction.

I'm trying to think of what it is, exactly, that Facebook has a monopoly on. The nearest I can come up with is: Facebook has a monopoly on Facebook users.

The followup question would be: how can that be broken up?

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#12

Post by apotheothesomai » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:36 AM UTC

onetimemanytime wrote: post #3

they should have never been allowed to buy Whatsapp and Instagram in the first place.

Um, neither WhatsApp nor Instagram were competitors to Facebook. Both of the acquired companies simply did something that Facebook tried to do, but very successfully.

The government can only prevent acquisitions and mergers, when such would greatly harm the consumer by giving a company too much control of a vital market, like health insurance or phone service. Moreover, it didn't stop banks from consolidating 30 separate entities into 5 between 1990 and 2005 or so.

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#13

Post by saudioger » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:39 AM UTC

barkingtoad wrote: post #11

downer61 wrote: post #2

This is basically the worst possible course of action. Facebook is neither a utility nor monopoly. Facebook will be irrelevant in a generation or less. Even if Facebook manages to leverage the network effect of its alternative subsidiaries, there will always be the treadmill of evolving trends, and there’s not such thing as one true mode of electronic social interaction.

I'm trying to think of what it is, exactly, that Facebook has a monopoly on. The nearest I can come up with is: Facebook has a monopoly on Facebook users. The followup question would be: how can that be broken up?

You could spin off an easy dozen companies out of existing Facebook services.

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#14

Post by downer61 » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:41 AM UTC

unicornporn wrote: post #4

downer61 wrote: post #2

This is basically the worst possible course of action. Facebook is neither a utility nor monopoly. Facebook will be irrelevant in a generation or less. Even if Facebook manages to leverage the network effect of its alternative subsidiaries, there will always be the treadmill of evolving trends, and there’s not such thing as one true mode of electronic social interaction.

> Facebook will be irrelevant in a generation or less. A lot of harm can be done in one generation. Don't you think the history shows us that?

I’m being extremely generous with that approximate duration of relevance.

Look at Microsoft. Windows’ golden period lasted from 1998 until 2006 with the release of Vista. With the release of Vista, Microsoft’s strangle hold on relevance disintegrated in a summer. And now what? Microsoft technically “exists” but who cares?

We are witnessing Facebook’s Vista moment right now. Donald Trump is Facebook’s Windows Vista.

Think about that for a second.

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#15

Post by matte_black » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:43 AM UTC

panarky wrote: post #7

A good first step would be to force Facebook to let users easily take out their data in machine-readable form, including their social graph, posts and media.

What’s the next step exactly?

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#16

Post by partiallypro » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:44 AM UTC

panarky wrote: post #7

A good first step would be to force Facebook to let users easily take out their data in machine-readable form, including their social graph, posts and media.

They have done that voluntarily for years. It's under your settings. One thing they don't currently allow is a complete and utter, real, deletion of your profile and all of its assets. You can delete your account, but it's more or less just held in a suspended state.

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#17

Post by partiallypro » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:46 AM UTC

onetimemanytime wrote: post #3

they should have never been allowed to buy Whatsapp and Instagram in the first place.

Would you argue that Google should have been allowed to buy them then? How about Google buying YouTube? Where do you draw the line? Because so far it seems to largely stem on whether the people proposing this like the company or if they think (wrongly) it swayed the election outcome away from their perceived world view.

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#18

Post by Slansitartop » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:47 AM UTC

downer61 wrote: post #2

This is basically the worst possible course of action. Facebook is neither a utility nor monopoly. Facebook will be irrelevant in a generation or less. Even if Facebook manages to leverage the network effect of its alternative subsidiaries, there will always be the treadmill of evolving trends, and there’s not such thing as one true mode of electronic social interaction.

> Facebook will be irrelevant in a generation or less. Even if Facebook manages to leverage the network effect of its alternative subsidiaries, there will always be the treadmill of evolving trends, and there’s not such thing as one true mode of electronic social interaction.

Maybe so, but Facebook has shown a willingness to spend the money to acquire control of those evolving trends to maintain its dominance (see: Instagram, Whatsapp, and the failed attempt to buy Snapchat).

At a minimum I think it should be divested of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#19

Post by jld » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:49 AM UTC

barkingtoad wrote: post #11

downer61 wrote: post #2

This is basically the worst possible course of action. Facebook is neither a utility nor monopoly. Facebook will be irrelevant in a generation or less. Even if Facebook manages to leverage the network effect of its alternative subsidiaries, there will always be the treadmill of evolving trends, and there’s not such thing as one true mode of electronic social interaction.

I'm trying to think of what it is, exactly, that Facebook has a monopoly on. The nearest I can come up with is: Facebook has a monopoly on Facebook users. The followup question would be: how can that be broken up?

Many (most? all?) newspapers have a firewall between ad sales and news/editorial. Since news and editoral on FB is pretty much the news feed, I think duplicating the newspaper model here might be something like so:

One could split Facebook into a "connecting the whole world" company that Zuck talks about constantly and the ad company FB actually is.

The ad company would have exclusive license to fill of all the ad slots on the platform, and the social company would request ads through some kind of interface which had strict privacy controls. The ad company would take a cut and pass the rest of the cash to social network.

Just one way I think it could splitting the company could work.

Re: Facebook Can’t Be Fixed, It Needs to Be Broken Up

#20

Post by xbmcuser » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 4:50 AM UTC

My only problem with Facebook is that it was allowed to purchase Whatsapp and Instagram it's future competitors. I was glad Snapchat did not sell to Facebook. Personally I only use WhatsApp of these 4 as it is something I can't do without for work.