> The Bundeskartellamt underestimates the fierce competition we face in Germany
Which competition? The only viable social network in Germany that came close to Facebook was Lokalisten, which shuttered finally in 2016.
I don't mean evidence that people want more privacy and someone is paying/putting up billboards advocating this. Do you have some evidence (anything) that these yet unnamed companies are behind a strategy to stain FB's image (as if it were needed) in order to have the privacy violation market all to the themselves?
Can you at least name one of these companies? Or maybe a hint on why Facebook doesn't even acknowledge this enemy?
I have absolutely no insight into any lobbying activities, obviously.
Are you sure? It's unusual but not impossible. It ought to be possible to find out who is paying for them.
I don't recall ever seeing anything like that. So it's either very rare or limited to certain regions. I do recall seeing Facebook billboards which pick up some of the Anti-Facebook rhetoric, e.g. [1]. Those are paid for by Facebook.
> country-wide hysteria against social networks
According to Facebook itself, there are ~29 million daily users[2] in Germany (pop. 82 million).
[1] http://cdn4.spiegel.de/images/image-1065027-galleryV9-qxvz-1... ("I posted something I should not have shared/Delete it and it's gone")
[2] https://allfacebook.de/zahlen_fakten/offiziell-facebook-nutz...
The social media extraction technology could be replaced by other tefhnologies used to mine data and attention, such as videos, music, or chat services. The competitors, however, are other companies selling the same product.
That is FB’s perspective.
If you're a monopolist, widen your pool of competition to include anything you possibly can.
If your employees consume fruit at work, proclaim you're competing with Chiquita bananas (and have a tiny share of the fruit market).
If your employees ever fly on planes, proclaim your position in jets is terribly weak next to Boeing and Airbus.
They're not a social network, they're considerably trailing YouTube with Watch. They're not a social network, they're trailing Craigslist with Marketplace. They're not a social network, they're badly trailing Android and iOS in app marketplaces. They're not a social network, they're badly trailing Amazon and Google in smart speakers and home tech. And so on the lie goes.
I'm pretty sure that AT&T and Standard Oil also had branches that did not have a monopoly in their respective areas, but that didn't stop the splitting of the companies.
It doesn't work very well at all with a determined government, which will zero in on specific market abuses (rather than getting caught up in bullshit PR fluff). Primarily it's one part PR play with the public brand & image, and one part time delay. Facebook would love nothing more than to have an opportunity to burn years of time by being given a chance to argue round and round about all the competition they face.
Microsoft laughably couldn't stop repeating how they were fighting for their right to innovate (which eg had next to nothing to do with their serious OEM abuses). Every other word out of Gates and Ballmer's mouths for years was a variation of innovation. They beat that drum to death, it made no difference. They tried playing the widen the competition pool card over and over again, that also made zero difference.
No serious regulator will ever believe the competition everywhere premise. I generally don't believe it's aimed at actually convincing a serious regulator, either. The sharks that work for giants like Facebook know it's not an actual strong legal argument, which is why I believe it's one part stall tactic and one part public image support. There's a small chance it could cause some skepticism among less determined regulators as a fluke benefit.
Fortnite is the bogeyman for all entertainment and so forth.
But yeah as for social network, nothing.