[Behind Liberal Lines]

Gotta make it a public utility, or at least declare it a place of public accommodation

[proust]

“They can delete you from the internet.”

I want this so badly.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
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President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.

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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $335.00 dollars to 97.00%

[gaijin]

Wylie, Facebook whistleblower

[ctdonath2]

No.

Facebook is a private entity, which others may use or compete with.
Zuck & co may set & enforce their rules on their servers as they see fit.

Remember Sears? Kodak? CompuServe? AOL? etc?
Every “deeply concerning” unstoppable world-defining juggernaut of the past has ... passed.

I’ve seen many social media sites come & go over the decades, from small to world-shaping. They all have a definite life cycle.
And Facebook is showing signs of their looming demise. Signal-to-noise ratio is falling, nobody wants to go there because everyone is there, there’s huge pent-up demand for a mass exodus to the next big thing.

Ditto Twitter.

They’re not “public utilities”. The government is not giving them special treatment/privileges (like physical utility right-of-ways). There are any number of alternatives available. Yes, it will be annoying to disconnect from FB because of the social connections you’ve made - so just start abandoning it, keeping just enough for what you find necessary.

They’re not “public accommodations”. Nobody is practically compelled to be there, and there is no need for them to accommodate everyone. Don’t like their rules? Leave.

I’ve resisted the “log in with Facebook” found everywhere. I’m actually part of a project to provide “single sign on” for apps & sites via other means. You don’t have to let Facebook be your doorman, rendering you impotent if service is severed.

Just leave Facebook if you’re so inclined. It’s not “too big to fail”. It’s not an irreplaceable public service.

[Mariner]

I’m pretty sure they cannot delete us from Free Republic:)

That said, it IS time to bust these monopolies.

1. Transport
2. Directory/Search
3. Content

Those would be the minimum separations. And no company should be able to own more than one service in any category, or ownership in more than one category.

Examples: Google Search could not also own Youtube and GMail. And they could not also expand into laying fiber and wireless too.

Facebook would be a completely standalone service. No news, no directory, no Instagram...nothing else.

Spin them off. Stridently monitor compliance with BIG, BIG cash rewards for whistle blowers...paid by fines extracted from the monopoly.

We have great experience as a nation with this, and it’s always worked for the better.

1. Standard Oil
2. Ma Bell

[WMarshal]

Facebook is evil.

That being said, if I don’t “exist” on the Internet do I have to pay taxes?

[rockrr]

Facebook, for its part, said Wylie was suspended because he violated the company's terms of service.

That's their excuse for every screw-over they commit.

[al_c]

Delete from the internet? Is that a bad thing?

[Drew68]

The firm allegedly harvested data from more than 50 million Facebook accounts without users' permission.

In violation of what exactly?

Didn't Barack Obama's campaign do the exact same thing in 2012?

Is it only an outrage because Trump did this and went on to win?

[Nailbiter]

Me first - although getting booted from facebook is hardly getting booted from the internet

[Hammerhead]

Get rid of Facebook get rid of Google. An unholy alliance.

I’m going Apple phone and some other search engine besides Bing and Google.

[bigbob]

People would pay bigly if FB could actually do that.

[LanaTurnerOverdrive]

Deleted from the internet? Where do I sign up?

[pigsmith]

"They can delete you from the internet."

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

[upchuck]

"They can delete you from the Internet."

I have been very careful not to get involved with 'social media' as I feel it's a fad and will be short lived.

So to Facebook I say, "C'mon, delete me if you can."

[doorgunner69]

If you are not an iFag smartphone addict, why would you care?

Cannot delete email accounts.

[OldMissileer]

If for some reason I have to log on to a web site I never use the FB logon and would not use that web site if it was the only way to do so.

I’ll be darned if I give FB all that tracking data that also may include whatever I purchased from that web site. I go so far as to have my Firefox NoScript and AdBlock add-ons set up to reject all FB and most Google cookies and ads and I am very careful to allow some of them to make a site function.

I know allowing some Google crap allows them to track me but they don’t get everything they want and they have to work for what they do get.

[Trillian]

I’m sure some people would pay good money for that service.

[palmer]

Gotta make it a public utility, or at least declare it a place of public accommodation

He wants his Facebook account solely for the reason that he can log into Tinder and use his Tinder rep to score better anonymous gay sex. The idea that we need to control or even care, in the least, about any of these stupid online services shows how far we have fallen.

[Tallguy]

"The firm allegedly harvested data from more than 50 million Facebook accounts without users' permission."

I'm having a hard time deciding where the 'crime' is in this instance. Facebook basically asks it's users to waive their privacy rights on a limited basis to Facebook. FB may sell that information -- within stated limits (which FB can change at any time). So if the information was obtained by Cambridge Analytica, and they didn't steal it, where is the crime? Oh, wait, they did it for Trump! There it is -- a political crime!