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Comment by fahayekwasright | Hacker News Reader

Facebook has sufficient accumulation of capital to make this impossible. Build something good enough to challenge them and you will get purchased.

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Facebook does not have the power to force people to sell to them. They do not have the power to force people to use Facebook. That's a fact. It's a free website, that people use of their own accord, at their own discretion. Just like someone that chooses to read NYT.

The call to regulate a free press (Facebook) is far more disturbing than any targeted advertising Facebook is engaged in.

FB’s power is not a binary of either “can force” or “can’t force.” But they can offer an amount so high it’s hard to say no, and they can manipulate their users’ attention in ever more complex and subtle ways.

I don’t consider FB a pure evil, just a potential danger. Their moral hazard is comparable to that of a heroin dealer—-they are incentivized to get you using the product as much as possible, regardless of the possibility that more than a small amount could be harmful.

Offering an extremely high price that surpasses the sellers expectations + potential buyers remorse and making a sale "hard to say no to" is not force. It is not Don Corleone making an offer they cannot refuse. Let's not equate voluntary exchange with a mugging

I agree, it’s not force. I just don’t think “force” in the literal sense is required to make it a scary situation.

If they have to buy you, then its not really a monopoly. Thats how you would constantly gnaw at their position.

Assuming that they accrete whatever they buy and use it, that strategy has less and less effect over time,

So don't say yes when they offer to purchase you

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