Break Facebooks Power and Renew Journalism

[Thaddeus]

by @VWPickard

Facebook’s sudden fall from grace has toppled long-held assumptions that it couldn’t be regulated. Now a rare bipartisan consensus has emerged that Facebook’s unaccountable power may require government intervention.

The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal helped kick-start an overdue conversation about monopoly power, its pernicious effects on society, and government’s role in stopping it. With implications far beyond Facebook, a precious opportunity for structural reform has opened.

How can we seize it? Mark Zuckerberg himself has said in interviews and during his congressional testimony that regulation might be necessary. But what kind of regulation? Do we repeat past mistakes and defer to weak self-regulations that will fade over time? Or do we subject Facebook to real public oversight and implement redistributive measures?
ADVERTISING

Thus far, discussions have focused mostly on user privacy, which is vitally important. But we also should consider a broader, bolder vision for what Facebook owes society in return for the incredible power we’ve allowed it to accumulate—even as we contain and erode that power. It’s time for a new social contract.


https://www.thenation.com/article/break-facebooks-power-and-renew-journalism/

[S.E. TN Liberal]

1. I learned long ago that you don't want to put any information on the internet...

..that you would not be willing to post on a billboard alongside the freeway.

No information is truly private once it is on the Internet.

Cambridge Analytica has no power to do harm to people who keep their personal information off the Internet. We have to be aware and keep our information private ourselves.