Sometimes it simply means it's the globally winning move. Two hypotheticals. 1) Users pay Facebook a monthly fee to use the platform (enough to fund it profita

Sometimes it simply means it's the globally winning move. Two hypotheticals. 1) Users pay Facebook a monthly fee to use the platform (enough to fund it profitably, so say $25/month) 2) Users pay Facebook a monthly fee AND Facebook markets their information (if not through direct advertising, then other methods) If the fee is the same, and there's no fundamental reason it shouldn't be, Facebook is under a fiduciary duty to always choose (2). The only path to not monetizing users is Apple-esque "Make so much money you can forgo profit in service to branding that the market forgives you". And I don't see Facebook ever commanding those kinds of margins. Absolutely agreed on corporate personhood. Teddy Roosevelt's biography and the 1850 - 1920 period is instructive, as you see what it really takes to claw back control from corporations (aka "combinations" at the time).