Facebook Antitrust Inquiry Shows Big Tech’s Freewheeling Era Is Past

Not mentioned but almost as important as the privacy issue is censorship. FB, as well as other tech platforms, have chosen to arbitrarily censor user material using it's own "algorithms"...using vague and inconsistent phrases like "community standards" and "hate speech" as reasons. Under senators like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, we understand that these heavily biased and hypocritical protocols must be regulated. As someone who hates regulation, it pains me to admit that these clowns refuse to police themselves so need intervention in order to provide a fair, neutral and un-biased user experience. Bring it on.

The government approves all their M&A, then when they get big, starts to feed off the money they make via fines.

Facebook takes people's personal information and its executives get zero jail time? Yet some poor person in rural U.S. can buy goods or services with a bad check and get jail time. There is no real deterrence to prevent Facebook or any other company from stealing and abusing personal information in the future. "But the agreement was criticized for failing to limit Facebook’s gathering, sharing and use of people’s personal information, a practice that has repeatedly raised privacy questions. And the F.T.C.’s commissioners were divided on partisan lines this month when they voted 3-to-2 to approve the measures, which provide immunity to Facebook’s officers and directors and shield the company from known claims of violations through last month — essentially giving it a pass on its past." Neither the Republicans or Democrats will protect our personal data. Under former President Obama's administration FERPA, which was supposed to protect children's educational records was weakened. Both the Republicans and Democrats gave up children's data with the creation of Digital Promise. Who is going to give us our privacy back?

Internet and social media are changing the classic parameters of the industry era in a dramatic way.

Yawn. A few campaign donations to the right places and Facebook gets another slap on the wrist.

It's about time. The Sherman anti-Trust act was designed to protect consumers from predatory corporate behavior and hasn't been enforced since the 60's. A side note, we gotta reverse the Citizens United ruling that feeds the corporate corruption in our government. When I was growing up it did seem like the politicians were actually interested in "trying" to stop corruption. These days the overwhelming mantra is "how can I get in on it". A few words from a well known document that few people seem to actually think is important: ".........Insure Domestic Tranquility, promote the General Welfare........."

Several of the social media companies have asked for some level of government regulation the past couple of years. Congress has not responded. The FTC provides guidelines for broadcast television and even what magazines can print and not print. The government made the determination years ago that cigarettes were off limits for advertising. Why is Congress abdicating their responsibilities now? While I am not a big user of social media, government regulation would be the preferred method here; we could adopt rules similar to the EU's general data protection regulations. Breaking up Facebook and Google sounds sexy and cool to many, but all you would be doing in reality is making the Zuckerberg's of the world wealthier as he would still own large stakes in each of the companies that were part of a breakup and each company could still operate without regulation.

Facebook's main problem is not that it is a monopoly in need of breaking up. It's not even that it doesn't adequately safeguard users' personal information. It's main problem - and it may be fatal - is that Facebook is, quite literally, FATAL. How many people have died because of "fake news" posted on FB? An accurate number may never be know. But certainly FB posts have resulted in more deaths than Takata airbags and GM ignition switches - both of which were recalled. FB is selling a defective product that can result in death. Why hasn't it been pulled from the market? If FB cannot make it's product safe, it should be shutdown.

Facebook is now a name associated not with family photo sharing, birthday parties, announcements of significant events, but with "bad actors". Facebook knowingly confuses and misleads its users; sells their personal data; refuses to compensate journalists and other content creators; and lies repeatedly that they made mistakes that will be fixed moving forward. Whether the FTC takes them fully to task or not is almost a moot point. What the FTC fails to do, their European counterparts will do for them. Why anyone of conscience would work at Facebook is beyond me. And as the majority "voting" shareholder, I'd like to see Mark Zuckerberg held personally accountability going forward.

A break up is just the start; they also need to face the same regulations and penalties as any other publisher, compensate the producers of any and all content which appears on their platform regardless of who posts it or how it got there, face criminal and civil liability for defamation and libel, criminal and civil liability for privacy and personal data breeches, etc. In short, they need to learn the hard way, like Microsoft did in the 90s, you only get a free ride for so long. This is way, way, way overdue. Oh, and Google should be included in all of this (they are actually much worse actors than FB).

Means nothing except taxpayers picking up the legal fees. Federal laws are needed that require Facebook, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, or any business wanting personal data, to be granted permission by consumers. And pay the same consumers for any revenue produced from that personal data.

Shut Facebook down. Destroy one of the pillars of Russian election meddling.

Facebook isn't paying the right politicians or they're not paying enough.

Knowing what we know about Facebook, it surprises and dismays me that anyone still chooses to use it. I quit a year ago, and my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.

Amazon is probably guilty of anti-competitive practices if they consist of lower prices, an infinitely wider selection of everything, ability to shop comparatively for prices and quality, real customer reviews of products, free or cheap expedited delivery, ease of returning items for exchange or refund without leaving home, hassle-free. Instant access to technical information about a product linked to the ad (unlike big box stores where "customer service" clerks know less than you). I think my favorite anti-competitive trade practice is how, when shopping at Amazon, you can shop naked if you want, use a bathroom a few steps away that's familiar and as clean as you keep it or grab a snack from your personally stocked cafe because this all happens in the privacy and comfort of your own home. I guess it's also not fair for Amazon to let people shop without braving traffic, wasting gas getting to the mall and/or looking for a parking space, and Bezos/Amazon let's you shop in your own-climate controlled environment. Amazon must be stopped

So the consumer gets their rights violated by Zuckerberg and the government gets paid because of it? Anyone else notice something wrong here?

Facebook should have been blocked from buying Instagram. That was the last social media site that could've competed. But that is what these firms do. First, they want to remove players from the market, enjoy 'synergies', cut operational efficiencies (lay people off) and absorb the acquired target's best engineering talent. Facebook did not want to compete in an open market; they wanted a winner-take-all social media monopoly. They should be broken up.

These billionaire techies got their tax break now the Republicans are extorting payback. It’s tough supporting both sides of the fence when you’re rich.

I know it's sexy right now to dump all the anger and problems of the world onto big tech companies. This comment will not be popular for this reason. It's amazing to me why we haven't broken up the long-standing, real monopolies in this country, including pharma companies and telecom etc. This year, my social security number was stolen multiple times, particularly due to the equifax breach. That settlement was 1/8th of what regulators fined FB. First of all, FB is completely optional. If you are unhappy with FB, you can easily choose from the thousands of other social networking sites that i can't even fit onto one page, inc. twitter, snap, linkedin, nextdoor, reddit, tumblr and on and on...How is that a monopoly?

The big issue with Facebook is that it is beholden to no one, and Zuckerberg with the dual class stock has voting majority and kick out the board anytime. S&P 500 needs to drop FB from its index because of the dual share class structure. That in of itself will dramatically bring the stock price down as a significant amount of investors' money is in index funds. Facebook should also not be allowed to swallow other companies (like Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.) and becoming close to a social media monopoly.

Never had a Facebook account- one of the best decisions I ever made in my life-

Good. Next LinkedIn.

If you follow the money, and I do, then this is Trumps FFC attacking the #1 donor of Ms. Pelosi, leader of the Democratic Party in the House Campaign Committee Fundraising, 2017 - 2018 Top Contributors, 2017 - 2018 1.Facebook Inc 2. Salesforce.com 3.Intel Corp 4, Amazon.com 5. Google Inc In America, you need to raise money to run and win. In return you take care of your donors. That's reality Stay put to see if facebook has the defence it paid for Data https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary/nancy-pelosi?cid=N00007360&cycle=2018&type=I

The USA government should follow Europe's example because Facebook will NOT change unless they are hit hard where it hurts! Mark Zuckerberg has appeared before various government hearings and all he does is apologize, promise to do better but Facebook never really tries because they love making BILLIONS. One can tell a lot about a persons character by how they treat their neighbors and Zuckerberg has a bully mentality be it here in California, Palo Alto, up in Tahoe or over in Hawaii. Or with Facebook!

Bust it up into at least 10 pieces. . . The world will survive, but maybe not the alleycats

US try to copy europe now pretending to go after gafa. next thing trump will deploy a vast environment package..blahblah...Facebook is not that bad everyone knows trump and other brexiteers use social media to target their white audience..its never been russians, or so little. and btw noone talks anymore about cambridge analytica which was used by bannon to help twist million of voters in favor of knowingly trump campaign? am disgusted by media who focus on stupid things such as mueller everyone knows noone is brave enough to accuse trumps and his army of lawyers..system is rigged

Let's be realistic. Facebook has unwittingly caused the hijacking of The United States. It's done far more harm than good.

It's free. if you don't want people knowing your business than don't sign up. the last thing we need is this government telling business' how they should be run. clean up your own house first.

For those wanting to break up Facebook or eliminate its ability to use / sell personal data I have 3 things I ask you to remember: 1) FB is an aggregator and integrator of services because most people want ease of service and prefer to go to fewer not more places for internet services / apps - break up the company and that changes; 2) the internet is mostly “free” because companies are able to sell your information - get rid of that and be ready to pay for EVERYTHING; and 3) we live in a free market / open economy - if you don’t like what FB or any company is doing with your data or its general business practices stop using it as you do have options (this is not like the days of Ma Bell when there was only one landline option). Granted I agree that there should be privacy restrictions but our lawmakers have refused to do anything, so if you want to change that vote or vote differently. Lastly, I do believe that if FB or any other company acts in an illegal anticompetitive manner then there needs to be consequences, both financial penalties and better oversight, but a breakup is a throw the baby out with the bathwater solution in my opinion.

Sounds like political paybacks from the Trump Administration.

Can’t believe I’m writing this, but one of the rare times the Trump Administration has done something that I approve of. The Obama presidency had no interest in reining the abuse of tech companies.

What a joke yet again. If the US government really wants to punish corporate malfeasance and put a stop to this, management, starting with the CEO should be the one punished, not the corporate entity.

As the Zuck is primarily a republican this is all for show, nothing will change it will all be swept under the rug like everything else is.

There are so many merged corporations that are in total control of our economy. Ever look at the lists of the "a subsidiary of ---" attached to most everything. And one result of this aggregation is a pretty total control of the government through campaign 'donations" and plain bribery of government personnel. We are run by corporations already. It needs to stop. Stop corporations from being "people". We point at various world governments and declare that they are so awful. Because they have greedy officials draining the wealth of the country, rampant graft, mass jailing off non-citizens in inhumane conditions. Hmmm. And then there are a large number of massive (and growing) agencies armed with military equipment and controlled only by the President. In the early 40's this approach was used. Internal terror, massive armed troops controlled only by das Fuhrer, alienating every other country in the world, etc. What not to do. Allowing two groups of crazies to determine who is president. Remove pathways between the citizen vote and what is actually used to determine an election. Allowing Gerrymandering for said crazies. Undermining rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. The second amendment is not for hunting. It is there in case some county decides to try again. The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing. Citizens do not know what tomorrow brings. Will we eat or not. Medical care or gypsy potions. Housing or a piece of plastic; then taken by the local police.

Add that to FB's utterly unethical human subjects research experiments and the blame it and its executives must live with for their and their company's part in failing to prevent or even warn the government or the People of Russia's (and others?) huge attack on our democracy and the resulting Trump presidency.

FB is really in for it now that the fierce watchdog FTC is on the case! Just kidding. There's a useful term here: "kayfabe," which comes from professional wrestling and refers to portraying staged, phony rivalries and competition as genuine. Nothing substantive will change, but an interminable investigation provides political cover when something happens and politicians are asked "what are you doing about this?"

I hope this leads to more meaningful oversight of Facebook than provided in the privacy agreement. Facebook's behavior indicates a cavalier attitude towards the privacy of billions of people. Their practices are opaque, and they've come to have so much power in the the commercial world that companies usually have little choice but to work with them on Facebook's terms. In practical terms, today regulators have little idea of what Facebook is up to, what data they collect, and what they do with information they gather; therefore, regulators cannot provide meaningful oversight. Here's one example. Samsung is one of the major cell phone manufacturers today. On most Samsung phones, the Facebook app is preinstalled. And here's the thing: unlike most apps, you can't uninstall the Facebook app. Samsung has signed an agreement with Facebook, such that Samsung has made the app permanent and un-removable. It's possible to "disable" the Facebook app, but it's unclear what that means. And, remember: cell phone's don't only make calls; the also track ones every movement. Samsung is likely not the only cell phone company that has an arrangement with Facebook. We need to bring Facebook under control. There is one bit of good news. Though many people enjoy using Facebook, it doesn't provide a product or service essential to life. Thus, the company can be regulated with little real risk to society.

Good. Break them up and force them to sell Instagram and WhatsApp. Their absolute dominance over social media is dangerous