It’s a social media website. It does not provide the only source of electricity or telephone communication. We could all give up facebook tomorrow and literally nothing would change. Why does the government need to get involved here?
At one time telephones were considered a luxury item for the wealthy.
It has become essential a “common carrier” that selectively denies it service to those it politically disagrees with.
Even Ma Bell never took that step yet the government broke it up.
And it broke up other monopolies such as Standard Oil a century ago.
Zuckerberg’s arrogance is making this possible.
What I can’t figure out is why good a competitor to FB isn’t out there
“It’s a social media website. It does not provide the only source of electricity or telephone communication. We could all give up facebook tomorrow and literally nothing would change. Why does the government need to get involved here?”
Facebook, Google, and Twitter are among the large companies that provide cross-platform identity verification to many smaller sites and businesses. We all pay a cost when identity theft occurs. A lot of personal identity information is for sale by Facebook. There have been security breeches.
Interstate commerce. Facebook engages in billions of dollars of interstate commerce and engages in unfair business practices.
Facebook is publicly traded and has access to market capital. It must not engage in arbitrary discrimination based on political viewpoints. By not disclosing its real criteria for banning the commercial use of its products it is committing fraud.
Facebook is engaged in deceptive business practices by pretending to be an open platform while simultaneously profiting from people who are otherwise banned from benefitting from the platform.
In general, we also have a problem with ALL of the multi-national corporations that game the system in order to avoid being regulated in the first place.
And we have these same companies selling private personal data with the Deep State “Intelligence” agencies without proper public disclosure. Regardless of whether the Patriot Act or other laws shield the companies and agencies from legal liability, in practice it is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
Facebook is not quite on par with Google and Apple when it comes to being a “public utility” but it is close. More than 99% of cell phones today run on either Google or Apple software and are continuously tracked by these companies. You are listened to even when you have not given explicit consent. Your location is tracked. All of your online activities are tracked if they are not hidden behind VPS. Facebook is third-place when it comes to tracking and communication. With its purchase of Whatsapp, it is a dominate communication service by virtue of this most popular messaging and voice over IP communication platform. Keep in mind that Whatsapp is not merely a smart app, it is a platform that allows many other third-party services to offer extended functionality or piggyback on its platform.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, et al, count on the ignorance of people such as yourself (not meaning it as an insult but in the sense that I’m trying to make you aware of something they’d prefer to keep hidden from the average consumer), because they do not want to be regulated or broken up. You simply cannot compare a multi-billion-dollar, multi-national, publicly-traded corporation with mom-and-pop businesses. They MUST be regulated. In fact, they already are, just not well enough.
“It’s a social media website. It does not provide the only source of electricity or telephone communication. We could all give up facebook tomorrow and literally nothing would change. Why does the government need to get involved here?”
Facebook, Google, and Twitter are among the large companies that provide cross-platform identity verification to many smaller sites and businesses. We all pay a cost when identity theft occurs. A lot of personal identity information is for sale by Facebook. There have been security breeches.
Interstate commerce. Facebook engages in billions of dollars of interstate commerce and engages in unfair business practices.
Facebook is publicly traded and has access to market capital. It must not engage in arbitrary discrimination based on political viewpoints. By not disclosing its real criteria for banning the commercial use of its products it is committing fraud.
Facebook is engaged in deceptive business practices by pretending to be an open platform while simultaneously profiting from people who are otherwise banned from benefitting from the platform.
In general, we also have a problem with ALL of the multi-national corporations that game the system in order to avoid being regulated in the first place.
And we have these same companies selling private personal data with the Deep State “Intelligence” agencies without proper public disclosure. Regardless of whether the Patriot Act or other laws shield the companies and agencies from legal liability, in practice it is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
Facebook is not quite on par with Google and Apple when it comes to being a “public utility” but it is close. More than 99% of cell phones today run on either Google or Apple software and are continuously tracked by these companies. You are listened to even when you have not given explicit consent. Your location is tracked. All of your online activities are tracked if they are not hidden behind VPS. Facebook is third-place when it comes to tracking and communication. With its purchase of Whatsapp, it is a dominate communication service by virtue of this most popular messaging and voice over IP communication platform. Keep in mind that Whatsapp is not merely a smart app, it is a platform that allows many other third-party services to offer extended functionality or piggyback on its platform.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, et al, count on the ignorance of people such as yourself (not meaning it as an insult but in the sense that I’m trying to make you aware of something they’d prefer to keep hidden from the average consumer), because they do not want to be regulated or broken up. You simply cannot compare a multi-billion-dollar, multi-national, publicly-traded corporation with mom-and-pop businesses. They MUST be regulated. In fact, they already are, just not well enough.