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Comment by b9a2cab5 | Hacker News Reader

This is like saying if you don't like the rules you can build your own multinational telephone network. There's a reason telecoms are subject to common carrier rules and I don't see why tech monopolies should be any different.

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The crucial difference is lack of a right of way. The thing which creates an actual monopoly instead of the language degradation of monopoly to mean "But it is big and I don't like it!".

My understanding of common carrier rules is that they want to avoid a situation where a railroad or telephone operator who controlled the only available line could charge exorbitant rates to customers who had no alternatives. I don't really see how the same concern is true for Facebook - we have lots of options to disseminate information online.

I think you are seriously and intentionally misunderstanding the point. So far it was completely fine for Facebook to ban whoever they wanted and it was justified by them being a private company. Anybody who complained about it was told that they can build their own social network/cloud provider/payment provider.

Somehow now this is bad... Ridiculous.

It's fine if you're a small or medium size business that commands at most single digit % of the market. Facebook dominates ad spending and reach to the point that you can't just build your own, because they have a de facto monopoly/oligopoly over digital ads.

Let me ask you this: do you think Apple should be allowed to ban whoever they want from their platform justified by them being a private company? If you say no, then you should also say no to Facebook being allowed to do so. Otherwise you're just twisting the facts to support your political position.

Different people on the Internet will say different things. You can't really assign one collective motive to everything on the Internet and then say it's hypocritical.

Facebook is a utility that should be nationalized - it has grown too big.

> Facebook is a utility that should be nationalized - it has grown too big.

This can't happen to utility monopolies:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/oct/06/telegram-says-...

If your claim were true, everyone would just be stuck suffering and beholden to Facebook's ability to fix their service for lack of options.

> Facebook is a utility

hardly.

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