[khazhoux]

> FB biases are too extreme. The best thing for FB is to be broken up.

That's a non sequitur. Breaking up FB will not de-bias "the algorithm". We'd have one company doing VR, one doing phone calls, one doing image sharing, and finally a company running the old social network with the exact same recommendation and content-moderation system.

[klyrs]

When Bell was broken up, it was into regional companies that were forced onto a common interchange that accepted traffic from competing telcos. I'd desperately like to see the same, where social media sites above a certain size are required to import/export data and play nicely with eachother's content.

[missedthecue]

Exactly. I don't understand how forcing a spin off of Instagram or however you want to organize the breakup resolves any of the problems HN has with FB.

Instagram would still be run by the same people, owned by the same people, and run with largely the same goals (profit, expansion, etc...)

[sillysaurusx]

Honestly at this point, I don't really care. I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but breaking up FB as a matter of principle may be a better idea than letting them slowly take over every tech sector.

I need to study more history to understand the tradeoffs, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System

The main problem is that it didn't seem to have much effect. Fast forward one generation, and AT&T is still pretty much a monopoly in most areas. It would be fascinating to know what long-term impact it actually had.

Breaking up a large company may benefit the company itself, too. Chaos is opportunity -- this is practically the thesis of startups -- and nothing would be more chaotic than to suddenly split Facebook's power into subunits, each with their own independent leaders and their own agendas.

The social network would be the most powerful subunit, sure. But it wouldn't be able to pool its profit with all of the others, which has a very real impact on the power it can wield. For example, imagine if Facebook wasn't able to acquire Instagram at all. What sort of empire would Instagram have built? We can't know. But if Facebook can't buy competitors, it unlocks more options for knocking down the castle.

Honestly, my main problem is that I'm having trouble coming to terms with why I want to see Facebook demolished. I don't want to turn into a hater. I guess my most powerful data point is that they ruined Oculus, a fact I'm still saddened by, and now they're trying to appropriate whatever the Metaverse will turn out to be.

One could argue that some company will do that, so it may as well be Facebook. But that logic doesn't work too well for a company that controls so much already.

[_yoqn]

... and one Zuckerberg controlling all of them.

[iammru]

You'll have a Metaverse company controlling what you experience based on your social network and all your preferences.