In a New York Times editorial, the social network’s VP for global affairs and communications says stronger oversight is needed, not a dismantling of the company.
Nick Clegg has hit back at calls for Facebook to be broken up after claiming that critics should focus on “getting the rules of the internet right” and not “dismantling successful American companies”
Nick Clegg was responding to a May 9 op-ed from Chris Hughes, who co-founded the company with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, then left in 2007. Hughes said elected officials should do something about the growing monopoly, noting that Facebook’s influence was growing too powerful, calling it “unprecedented and un-American.” He also said that the company was not being accountable, particularly on privacy concerns and election interference.
He also admitted that Facebook does need to be held to account, but shouldn’t be broken up by those fears. “Anyone worried about the challenges we face in an online world should look at getting the rules of the internet right, not dismantling successful American companies,”.
While Facebook incorporates many of the largest social networking apps, each competes with several others. The “blue app” as pure Facebook itself is called, along with Instagram, compete with YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest and the newcomer, TikTok. Whatsapp and Messenger compete with and lose to Apple’s iMessage, WeChat, Line, and Skype. Clegg’s argument is at its weakest here, as he fails to mention that Facebook apps dominate in specific regions, where entire cultures are shaped by Facebook’s algorithms.
In ways, both Hughes, Zuckerberg, and Clegg are right. Facebook’s mistakes have disastrous consequences, more regulation might help but there simply isn’t a solution to fixing it right now.
