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These types of social interactions aren’t fungible. There are a finite number of viable social interactions to be discovered. Once discovered, network effects p

These types of social interactions aren’t fungible. There are a finite number of viable social interactions to be discovered. Once discovered, network effects push towards consolidation to one platform offering that experience. If you consider “social media” as a market, it has healthy competitive landscape. If you consider different styles of social interaction as separate markets, they’ve cornered markets. I don’t see competition in these spaces. Facebook != Twitter, and I feel that is why both can exist. Behemoths in neighboring spaces opt to buy a social experience instead of trying to compete with their own. The missing piece, IMO, isn’t regulation around “censorship” for these platforms. It’s regulation that results in a rich market of products around a single style of social interaction. Example: regulation around interoperability.

jjeaff 6y ago
The social media companies are arguing that "social media" is not an industry by itself. They certainly aren't going to have to argue that they don't have a monopoly on a specific genre of social media.
d0gbread 6y ago
This 100%, well put. Within businesses, people have evolved far past market definitions where widget x¹ competes with widget x². Our political savvy as consumers would improve if we could see that as well. For example, why would Google approve a product like Stadia? What does it compete with? Nintendo, yes but not really, since so many Stadia players have a Switch also... just like most of us have Facebook and Twitter accounts. But maybe they're true competition is Netflix? Social media? Users are giving Google their time = data = insights = further monopolistic advertising power.
- harshitaneja 6y ago
  I am not sure exclusively is a requirement for being considered competition. Netflix and Disney Plus are competitors but that doesn't stop me from subscribing to both.
wadkar 6y ago
Can you please elaborate a bit more on the fungible interactions part? I am not sure I understand that bit. Suppose Tesla tomorrow becomes the sole manufacturer of battery powered cars. However, the good (dirty?) old petroleum based cars are still out there and on the road (not a lot but still). However, everyone wants an electric car in future - will that make Tesla a monopoly? How will it be different or same in this case of Twitter or Facebook?
- curryst 6y ago
  It has to do with interchangeable goods. Typically, only interchangeable goods are in competition. I.e. if I want paper towels, I can buy Brawny or I can buy the store brand. I may have a preference towards one or the other based on price or performance or something else, but if the store is out of one, I'll just buy the other and move on with life. A petroleum based car is largely interchangeable with an electric car, assuming we're talking one that will probably comply with environmental regulations over it's lifetime. I might prefer an electric car because of the environment, or to support the movement, or whatever, but at the end of the day, a petroleum car still gets me where I'm going. Tesla is unlikely to become a monopoly because even in the electric vehicle space, there are interchangeable goods. I'm not intimately aware, but it sounds like there are a couple other companies that make competitive models. Where that interchangeability can get weird and not so clear is on a more specific market, where users don't necessarily have a choice. Tesla is the only company (afaik) that makes a fully electric truck. You could possibly argue that Tesla has a monopoly on fully electric trucks; I think the question becomes, are other goods interchangeable? Is a petroleum truck interchangeable? Is a fully electric SUV interchangeable? Applied to social media, each of the major social media networks offers or encourages a substantially different type of social interaction. Twitter is largely for piecemeal content, and is largely more public than other forms of interaction. It leads to really high levels of engagement, and lots of flame wars. Instagram is all about photos, people go for the glamour. Facebook attempts to make you engage with your network more, I find people share more personal information there. Reddit is more anonymous than the other two, and builds around the concept of communities, which are featured more prominently than the other platforms. I think we all agree nobody has a monopoly on social media. The question is whether it's possible to have a monopoly on a particular form of social media. Are Reddit and Instagram interchangeable for you? They aren't for me, so I would say that they aren't in competition and as such, the existence of Reddit doesn't prevent Instagram having a monopoly any more than the existence of Chiquita does. "Social media" is an incredibly diverse category of services. Deciding the monopoly status of a company based on the health of competition in social media is like deciding whether to break up Standard Oil based on the health of the entire raw materials goods sector. It's not a granular enough measure, because it contains several non-interchangeable goods. If Standard Oil jacks up the price of oil, I can't just go buy iron instead; I can't put steel in gas tank. Likewise, if I get pissed off at Facebook and decide to quit, I can't just go somewhere else. My 80 year old grandma is on Facebook, teaching her to use Twitter is going to be a problem, and I generally don't know if I want to expose my grandma to the cesspool that Twitter can sometimes be. The services are not interchangeable to me, so Facebook has a monopoly on that service. My choices are to play by their rules, or to just bow out of the experience entirely. Let's say we ignore the legal technicalities of a monopoly for a moment; doesn't the outcome look remarkably similar? If this doesn't count a monopoly, it seems to lead to the same place, and perhaps it's non-monopoly status is due to a flaw in the law, rather than being expected behavior.
kelnos 6y ago
"Being a monopoly" isn't illegal; abusing a monopoly position is what gets you in trouble. What does Twitter do that would be considered abuse of their monopoly position on Twitter-like social interaction?
- r3trohack3r 6y ago
  I’m not suggesting they’ve violated laws. I’m suggesting new regulation targeting “censorship” might not be the best approach. They’ve cornered a medium of communication. People are upset by their moderation policies. By breaking the users out of the Facebook silo, through regulation, you can create a marketplace of experiences where there was once a monopoly. Each experience comes with its own moderation strategy.

jjeaff 6y ago

The social media companies are arguing that "social media" is not an industry by itself. They certainly aren't going to have to argue that they don't have a monopoly on a specific genre of social media.

d0gbread 6y ago

This 100%, well put. Within businesses, people have evolved far past market definitions where widget x¹ competes with widget x². Our political savvy as consumers would improve if we could see that as well. For example, why would Google approve a product like Stadia? What does it compete with? Nintendo, yes but not really, since so many Stadia players have a Switch also... just like most of us have Facebook and Twitter accounts. But maybe they're true competition is Netflix? Social media? Users are giving Google their time = data = insights = further monopolistic advertising power.

harshitaneja 6y ago
I am not sure exclusively is a requirement for being considered competition. Netflix and Disney Plus are competitors but that doesn't stop me from subscribing to both.

wadkar 6y ago

Can you please elaborate a bit more on the fungible interactions part? I am not sure I understand that bit. Suppose Tesla tomorrow becomes the sole manufacturer of battery powered cars. However, the good (dirty?) old petroleum based cars are still out there and on the road (not a lot but still). However, everyone wants an electric car in future - will that make Tesla a monopoly? How will it be different or same in this case of Twitter or Facebook?

curryst 6y ago
It has to do with interchangeable goods. Typically, only interchangeable goods are in competition. I.e. if I want paper towels, I can buy Brawny or I can buy the store brand. I may have a preference towards one or the other based on price or performance or something else, but if the store is out of one, I'll just buy the other and move on with life. A petroleum based car is largely interchangeable with an electric car, assuming we're talking one that will probably comply with environmental regulations over it's lifetime. I might prefer an electric car because of the environment, or to support the movement, or whatever, but at the end of the day, a petroleum car still gets me where I'm going. Tesla is unlikely to become a monopoly because even in the electric vehicle space, there are interchangeable goods. I'm not intimately aware, but it sounds like there are a couple other companies that make competitive models. Where that interchangeability can get weird and not so clear is on a more specific market, where users don't necessarily have a choice. Tesla is the only company (afaik) that makes a fully electric truck. You could possibly argue that Tesla has a monopoly on fully electric trucks; I think the question becomes, are other goods interchangeable? Is a petroleum truck interchangeable? Is a fully electric SUV interchangeable? Applied to social media, each of the major social media networks offers or encourages a substantially different type of social interaction. Twitter is largely for piecemeal content, and is largely more public than other forms of interaction. It leads to really high levels of engagement, and lots of flame wars. Instagram is all about photos, people go for the glamour. Facebook attempts to make you engage with your network more, I find people share more personal information there. Reddit is more anonymous than the other two, and builds around the concept of communities, which are featured more prominently than the other platforms. I think we all agree nobody has a monopoly on social media. The question is whether it's possible to have a monopoly on a particular form of social media. Are Reddit and Instagram interchangeable for you? They aren't for me, so I would say that they aren't in competition and as such, the existence of Reddit doesn't prevent Instagram having a monopoly any more than the existence of Chiquita does. "Social media" is an incredibly diverse category of services. Deciding the monopoly status of a company based on the health of competition in social media is like deciding whether to break up Standard Oil based on the health of the entire raw materials goods sector. It's not a granular enough measure, because it contains several non-interchangeable goods. If Standard Oil jacks up the price of oil, I can't just go buy iron instead; I can't put steel in gas tank. Likewise, if I get pissed off at Facebook and decide to quit, I can't just go somewhere else. My 80 year old grandma is on Facebook, teaching her to use Twitter is going to be a problem, and I generally don't know if I want to expose my grandma to the cesspool that Twitter can sometimes be. The services are not interchangeable to me, so Facebook has a monopoly on that service. My choices are to play by their rules, or to just bow out of the experience entirely. Let's say we ignore the legal technicalities of a monopoly for a moment; doesn't the outcome look remarkably similar? If this doesn't count a monopoly, it seems to lead to the same place, and perhaps it's non-monopoly status is due to a flaw in the law, rather than being expected behavior.

kelnos 6y ago

"Being a monopoly" isn't illegal; abusing a monopoly position is what gets you in trouble. What does Twitter do that would be considered abuse of their monopoly position on Twitter-like social interaction?

r3trohack3r 6y ago
I’m not suggesting they’ve violated laws. I’m suggesting new regulation targeting “censorship” might not be the best approach. They’ve cornered a medium of communication. People are upset by their moderation policies. By breaking the users out of the Facebook silo, through regulation, you can create a marketplace of experiences where there was once a monopoly. Each experience comes with its own moderation strategy.