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Ask HN: How would you cut Facebook into pieces?

2 points by julienreszka 6y ago

If you had to break up facebook for some reason, for example if there was a case to believe they maybe allegedly abuse their dominant position. How would you cut them into pieces?

Mountain_Skies 6y ago
Doubt there is a simple solution like the Baby Bells but there are a couple of things that could be done. Facebook has more than 6000 patents. Spin those and all other intellectual properties owned by Facebook into its own company who will then license them back to Facebook and anyone else who wants to get them at the same cost that Facebook does. Spin off everything not related to the product at facebook.com. Instagram, Oculus, etc. Also require Facebook to enter into a consent decree on many of its uglier activities. On the issue of censorship, take that out of their hands entirely. No faux outside counsel that is appointed by Facebook. Instead allow outside service providers to provide users filtering services of their choice. If a user doesn't like Christians, they can use a filtering service that removes Christian posts. If a user doesn't like conspiracy theories, they use a filtering service that provides filtering for that type of content. Let the users decide what it is they want to filter out and have it done by independent entities not under the control of Facebook.
- onecommentman 6y ago
  Just a note on the AT&T mention. The spin-off of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) was only part of the AT&T breakup. Phone sets and the nascent computer business were spun off as American Bell. Eventually the Long Lines part of AT&T split from the Western Electric equipment manufacturing portion during a series of organizational convulsions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System Facebook is an order of magnitude smaller in employee base than the post-breakup AT&T, no hardware manufacturing, no regulatory wing, little presence of employees nationwide, a small customer base in the US as compared to every single person in the US, no defense presence or requirements, no lifeline requirements, no public safety regulations, very limited to no legal liability. It’s a toy company compared to the old AT&T. And they broke up AT&T...

2 points by julienreszka 6y ago

If you had to break up facebook for some reason, for example if there was a case to believe they maybe allegedly abuse their dominant position. How would you cut them into pieces?

Mountain_Skies 6y ago

Doubt there is a simple solution like the Baby Bells but there are a couple of things that could be done. Facebook has more than 6000 patents. Spin those and all other intellectual properties owned by Facebook into its own company who will then license them back to Facebook and anyone else who wants to get them at the same cost that Facebook does. Spin off everything not related to the product at facebook.com. Instagram, Oculus, etc. Also require Facebook to enter into a consent decree on many of its uglier activities. On the issue of censorship, take that out of their hands entirely. No faux outside counsel that is appointed by Facebook. Instead allow outside service providers to provide users filtering services of their choice. If a user doesn't like Christians, they can use a filtering service that removes Christian posts. If a user doesn't like conspiracy theories, they use a filtering service that provides filtering for that type of content. Let the users decide what it is they want to filter out and have it done by independent entities not under the control of Facebook.

onecommentman 6y ago
Just a note on the AT&T mention. The spin-off of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) was only part of the AT&T breakup. Phone sets and the nascent computer business were spun off as American Bell. Eventually the Long Lines part of AT&T split from the Western Electric equipment manufacturing portion during a series of organizational convulsions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System Facebook is an order of magnitude smaller in employee base than the post-breakup AT&T, no hardware manufacturing, no regulatory wing, little presence of employees nationwide, a small customer base in the US as compared to every single person in the US, no defense presence or requirements, no lifeline requirements, no public safety regulations, very limited to no legal liability. It’s a toy company compared to the old AT&T. And they broke up AT&T...