Imagine a world where Meta announced it was legally required to shut down.

Put aside the obliteration of stock value and job loss. What would be lost, and how hard would it be for folks to replace it with something else?

I imagine it would be all the talk for a hot few days. There'd be a hustle and a bustle as folks tried to entice their friends to other services. There'd be a land grab to recreate network effect lock in. There'd be talk even among normies to avoid it.

It'd be glorious, I tell you.

And three weeks later, there'd be a winner that got most of the exodus. A few people standing around looking for a chair in a 21st century version of duck-duck-goose.

A year later, things would be largely the same. Just as abusive. Serfs to different lords. No one would miss Meta.