[Seenso]

>> There should be only one regulation for fb, display following warning on all pages/screens: Statutory Warning: This product is specifically designed to cause behavioral addiction so you are guided down a slippery slope of over consumption & that is how this company makes money. Overuse of this product is known to cause - anxiety, depression, low self esteem, constant craving for attention, short attention spans, inability to concentrate on tasks, inhibited social development in the real world & possibly general "unhappiness", especially among the young & impressionable.

> Instead of regulation, maybe have browsers give you a warning on how the site your about to visit treats your personal data?

That wouldn't work. Facebook may see browser warnings like that as an existential threat. In response, they could create their own browser and heavily push it on users, a la Google & Chrome.

[JangoSteve]

They've already done that. They're called the Facebook and Messenger native apps for Android and iOS. Conveniently, the Facebook mobile web app shows you Messenger notifications but won't let you read them without installing the native Messenger app, or visiting the Facebook on a desktop browser, despite the fact that direct messages have a much simpler interface than the rest of Facebook and that it used to be possible to view messages in the mobile web app, so they push for native app usage pretty hard already.

I'm not sure they'd see desktop browser warnings as much of an existential threat considering 94% of their advertising revenue comes from mobile [1].

[1] https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2019/Q2...

[c22]

I haven't used Facebook in a couple years but mbasic.facebook.com used to let you see your messages.

[fooker]

It still does

[JangoSteve]

Thanks! I had no idea.

[zimbatm]

Sounds great to me! We need more competition in the browser market.

[Seenso]

> Sounds great to me! We need more competition in the browser market.

I'm almost certain that a Facebook browser would end up being Chromium with tight Facebook integration and extra-invasive data collection.

If Microsoft made the decision that it was too much work to maintain an independent browser engine and they already had one, I find it highly unlikely that Facebook would come to a different decision, given they're starting even farther behind.

[wolco]

They would just use the chrome engine so we would be no better off.

Really happy firefox is alive and well.