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Comment by randomsearch | Hacker News Reader

I think a good outcome would be if Facebook were forced to sell WhatsApp and Instagram.

It would punish Facebook and send a strong signal to other social networks. But Zuckerberg continues to have his baby and can compete on fair terms with rising social networks.

The US Government retains its mass surveillance tool, probably their main concern.

Voters get to keep using Facebook and feel like something has been done. Their representatives look like they’ve responded and everything goes back to normal.

Users can vote with their feet if they still feel so inclined, and use Instagram and WhatsApp instead.

New startups could compete in the space knowing that they weren’t facing one behemoth.

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The fact that the FTC allowed Facebook to acquire them at all is a great signal that our current antitrust regulation does not understand the power of networks in the context of monopolies.

Doesn't even need to be considered as a punishment, merely sensible anti-monopoly regulation. You shouldn't be able to buy your closest competitors so that you form a monopoly.

Punish them for what, exactly? Showing ads?

That is both legally and morally up for debate. As the article describes, popular opinion is swaying against the kind of cavalier use of personal data for their benefit alone.

Legally, perhaps less so, but it is at least possible at this point that they violated FTC agreements they had in place.

So I used Facebook for years. Even if my personal information was inadvertently accessed by advertisers, nobody was damaged by it.

I just don't understand the outrage.

I don't think punish is the right word. Even if Facebook had been more clear about its privacy policies from the get-go, I think you could make a solid argument that having Instagram or WhatsApp as separate companies would be better for the creative destruction we want out of capitalist competition.

> Instagram or WhatsApp as separate companies would be better for the creative destruction we want out of capitalist competition.

The rise of Instagram and WhatsApp IS creative destruction! Creative destruction occurs with or without breaking up Facebook...

I'll be honest I have no idea what you're trying to say.

Is it creative destruction to have a single company control so much of the time people spend on the internet? That sort of entrenched market power is going to lead to less innovation in general, because they don't need to worry nearly as much about people flocking to new apps or advertisers who would then have cheaper ways to reach consumers.

I don’t think creative destruction means what you think it means...

They don’t control anybody’s time. I don’t use Facebook. Nobody is forced to use Facebook.

Sell to whom and how is the real question though?

Should Instagram/WhatsApp together be their own public company? I don't think that's the worst scenario, though it might accelerate the death of Snapchat if you have a completely focussed investment in Instagram.

>Sell to whom and how is the real question though?

To the public? They could spin off WhatsApp and Instagram (shall we call them Baby Faces?) as public companies and sell them to whoever buys the shares.

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