All that tracking based web economy nonsense collapses overnight and you don't need to wait 25 years.
I think you don't realize how many people absolutely depend on social media, how many companies are built on income allowed by advertising, etc. Even music events are organized through Facebook around me!
And still, all Facebook and Google needs to do is remind the politicians who gets their advertising done.
Except to those pesky shareholders. Which includes employees. Peoples' wealth is tied up in those stocks.
But regardless... maybe try email or something. The internet existed before Google and Facebook. Plenty of competitors would rise to the top in the extremely unlikely event Google and Facebook shut down.
> Except to those pesky shareholders. Which includes employees. Peoples' wealth is tied up in those stocks.
That stock is dead anyways if they forbid ad targeting. And no, the company does not have any such obligation to its shareholders - it only has to make profit for its shareholders as best as it can, which may very well include turning the site off for a few days (the public/gov does not need to know for how long it is turned off and/or whether indefinitely).
No, advertising can exist very easily without targeting. It's still advertising, and people still pay for it.
> And no, the company does not have any such obligation to its shareholders
You're ignoring that some of the people with the most stock are those in charge of the company. They'd be destroying their own wealth by "shutting down the site".
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/25/tech/google-france-copyri...
> No, advertising can exist very easily without targeting. It's still advertising, and people still pay for it.
Have you tried advertising your product on such platforms? It just does not work if you're not a huge brand name with a deep pocket.
> You're ignoring that some of the people with the most stock are those in charge of the company. They'd be destroying their own wealth by "shutting down the site".
Actually that's the basis for my argument. That's why they might want to go "on a strike" for a few days - if it succeeds, it would massively increase their profits compared to the non-ad targeting version of the company, while missing only a few days of revenue if not successful.