Difference between Facebook and the other big tech companies?

Couldn't agree more, with the exception that I think Google is, really, not that different from Facebook in that regard and doesn't deserve the "pass".

Sure, Google has expanded into cloud and other enterprise offerings that can be judged separately, but their main business is still ads and consumers, and their consumer business is no different.

Replace Facebook with Youtube and everything said in the thread holds up. Youtube traps you in whatever bubble brings the most engagement, doesn't matter if it's bottom of the barrel clickbait or antivaxx, 5G-causes-covid type conspiracies. It fuels hive minds of like-minded, equally misguided individuals, gives a massive platform to those spreading uninformed, increasingly extreme views and then funnels people down that rabbit hole at the first sign it might drive up engagement. All for profit, and to uphold the video-monopoly as long as possible, while the creators that made Youtube what it is today continue to be snuffed out, shut down and driven away.

The entire Play Store is full of clones of clones of clones, and Google profiting off of the entire stack from advertising to in-app micro-transactions leaves them with no incentive to fight it.

Ten years ago I assumed and hoped that the whole smartphone market would mature. Sketchy ads would disappear. Shovelware would be a thing of the past. Similar to what happened with the internet as it matured. The stuff still exists, but it moved into the background and you have to search for get-rich-quick schemes to find them (or be on Facebook). On mobile, none of that changed. It's still right there.

I still get ads with fake PayPal screens, games that use NSFW art or clips from the originals they ripped off, binary trading scams and generally bad UX filled with dark patterns. Despite the privacy invasion. Despite the sheer size of the market. Despite the time to mature.

The point of the OP is that Facebook can't exist without the hubris, because it's entire business is built around it. Is it the same for Google? The answer is not yes, but I wonder if it's really that far off.