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Water, electricity, natural gas, and Facebook? I just don't think we can classify Facebook as a utility (in the sense suggested in the article), no matter how u
by coderdude 16y ago
Water, electricity, natural gas, and Facebook? I just don't think we can classify Facebook as a utility (in the sense suggested in the article), no matter how useful it is to so many people. We don't pay for it and we don't need it.
- mattmanser 16y agoI don't pay for radio stations and yet I bet they're regulated. Arguments that rely on 'it's free' are weak. Just because much of the web is free, with it's low running costs, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be regulated. News sites are covered by plenty of regulation just because they originally came out of print media. Although I agree calling it a utility is wrong to try and convince people it should be regulated. It's only a matter of time before facebook gets thwacked with regulation over here in the EU. Not because it's a utility but because it can cause so much social harm with its desire to make money. The bait and switch going on at facebook should definitely be stopped.
- scott_s 16y agoRadio stations are granted access to a public resource: the airwaves. Hence they are subject to regulation. That doesn't map well to the current discussion.
- barrkel 16y agoHow about "phone book"? You can't deny there are network effects. How sticky the network effects end up being is questionable, but denying them is stupid.