TOBY SHAPSHAK: Will breaking up Facebook fix it?
A co-founder calls Zuckerberg's influence 'staggering' and says his power is unprecedented and 'un-American'
Last week SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took a swipe at Amazon’s Jeff Bezos over his plans to land on the moon. But the biggest tech billionaire slapdown was the one that hit Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. One of the co-founders of the social media network, Chris Hughes, called for it to be broken up. In a blistering 6,000-word opinion piece, Hughes details the evolution of Zuckerberg, his Harvard dorm roommate, from the person he "watched hug his parents … at the beginning of our sophomore year" to the man whose "influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government". The Facebook CEO controls three communications platforms used by billions of people every day — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — and has control of 60% of the voting stock. America is a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, Hughes writes, "no matter how well intentioned", but "Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American". "It is time to break up Facebook," he says. Th...
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