Facebook Says Breaking Up Facebook Won't Do Any Good

Thursday Facebook's co-founder called for the government to break up the company. Saturday Facebook responded, according to an article shared by Slashdot reader soldersold:

Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president for global affairs and communications wrote the piece, and in it, he agrees with Hughes that 'companies should be held accountable for their actions,' and that tech companies such as Facebook shouldn't be the ones handling all of the 'important social, political and ethical questions' for the internet. But he notes that breaking Facebook up -- as Hughes calls for -- would be the wrong way to go. 'The challenges he alludes to,' Clegg writes, 'including election interference and privacy safeguards, won't evaporate by breaking up Facebook or any other big tech company....' Zuckerberg also responded to the op-ed while in France, saying that 'my main reaction was that what [Hughes is] proposing that we do isn't going to do anything to help solve those issues.'


Notably, Clegg sidesteps what's probably the op-ed's main focus: Zuckerberg himself. Hughes notes that while the CEO is a good person, he holds far too much power at Facebook, and can't be held accountable there -- he calls the shots. 'The government must hold Mark accountable,' Hughes wrote.
The article also notes that Clegg 'pushed back' against the argument that Facebook is a dominant monopoly, by 'saying that its revenue only makes up 20 percent of the advertising marketplace...'

'He goes on to reiterate many of Facebook's regular talking points: that it's been a net-positive for the world by connecting everyone, allowing businesses to thrive and people to raise lots of money for important causes around the world.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.