| > Yes, but what if this is the only way to have a profitable business such as these? Are you okay losing them entirely? But it isn't. We know it isn't - exchanging text, audio and video messages wasn't invented by adtech giants. Two prime examples: 1) Telephony and mobile telephony operators have strong businesses to this day, despite being made interoperable by law. 2) Non-adtech e-mail providers exist and make money, despite being interoperable and not subsidized by advertising and personal data misuse. > Where is the demonstrative harm here, and who is it impacting? Having one friend on FB and another on MySpace, requiring the user to log into each platform separately isn't harm. In my opinion, there is harm - creating unnecessary burden and confusion for everyone, especially non-tech-savvy people. It is tying people down to services via network effects, and then further harming them by exfiltrating their personal data and exposing them to advertising (either directly or indirectly, making the ads more potent thanks to aforementioned personal information). > The effect is the same as having one friend call you on a phone to communicate and the other only use text. No, it isn't. It's just having one friend text you, another friend write you a Messenger message, yet another a WhatsApp message, yet another a Telegram message... > Every single person using these platforms makes a conscious decision to use them given their limitations. Nobody is forcing anyone to use these platforms. But that's not true at all. People are coerced to use these services, and coerced to stay with them. That's the literal definition of network effect. I have to use WhatsApp/Facebook/whatever because my mom is there and doesn't want yet another chat app, and my local plumber only communicates through it. I have to stay, because neither my mom nor my plumber will move. The more people are trapped in the net, the stronger its hold. Contrast that with phone and e-mail service: I can communicate with anyone regardless of the provider they use. I don't even need to know what provider they use. And I can switch my providers at any time, and nobody else has to know, or care. > Instead of passing legislation to fix your problem, how about you just talk to your friends and get them to agree on using a single platform? These platforms are as successful as they are exactly because your proposed solution is impossible to implement by most people. Again: network effect. |