How do we, as a society, respond to the ethical questions Facebook is asking?
A few weeks ago, Chris Hughes, one of Facebook’s co-founders, published an opinion piece in The New York Times, proposing to break up the organization, that holds the keys to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Facebook, and especially CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has gained power beyond what’s right for the world, says Hughes.
The article rose a lot of attention, but I didn’t think more about the subject until today. I had a brief discussion about it on Twitter. The other person stated, he doubts the monopoly of Facebook and the dangers and damages it imposes on society. In short: The government should not break up the Facebook complex, the person wrote. There were a lot of alternatives to the big blue’s services from traditional text messages to rising stars like TikTok.
A different internet experience
At that exact moment, it occurred to me: This statement is dripping with western privilege. I grew up with message boards, blogs, forums, chat services, TeamSpeak, and independent websites. We experienced a free and diverse Web 2.0.