Republicans threaten to break up Facebook after Oversight Board decision

Conservatives blasted Facebook and its Oversight Board for upholding an indefinite ban on former President Trump on Wednesday.

"It is a sad day for America. It’s a sad day for Facebook because I can tell you, a number of members of Congress are now looking at: Do they break up Facebook, do they make sure that they don't have a monopoly? And I can tell you that it is two different standards, one for Donald Trump and one for a number of other people that are on their sites," Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows told "America's Newsroom."

Source

"This is a sad day for America but a sadder day for the Facebooks of the world who have actually enjoyed a very wild, wild West kind of regulatory environment. I can tell you that's going to change. The discussion will happen within hours of this decision on Capitol Hill," Meadows said.

I couldn't have said that better myself. A very sad day for America. This is absurd in my opinion. I stopped and tried to think, when did it change, when did it get so bad. One thought came to mind, the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident. I don't want to get off on a tangent about that event, but that's when I remember things changing, people getting more "butt hurt", more censorship.

I'm sure there are other incidents that caused it, that one comes to mind though.

So... where do we go from here?

We're off to a good start this year!

Biden has stumbled and shown the world that nothing he debated and campagined for actually happened.

The announcments of new Social Media for Millions who don't like the LEGACY SOCIAL MEDIA platforms will be massive.

The pushback will be great, just gotta keep voting Local and push for those Midterms, we got tons of evidence and proof to bring to the debate floor 🤭

a reply to: elevatedone

Nowhere.

The GOP is way to weak to take on Silicon Valley; nothing will come of this and the Courts will protect Facebook becaue the Courts are working in the interests of the Dem party and its biggest donor group, i.e., Silicon Valley.

a reply to: elevatedone

Much like laws and amendments that came out of the Reconstruction period, it's in poor taste to deliberate and possibly enforce or create new laws while a group is...emotionally compromised.

I get the anger and concern, but this is not the way to intelligently respond. I expect better from our elected officials.

Well, I did when I was 8. I've grown up and know better now.

What should NOT happen is that Repubs conspire to force free speech into the policies of private companies. Any bets on whether or not that is something seriously discussed?

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: elevatedone

Nowhere.

The GOP is way to weak to take on Silicon Valley; nothing will come of this and the Courts will protect Facebook becaue the Courts are working in the interests of the Dem party and its biggest donor group, i.e., Silicon Valley.

Yea, too many phonies need to be exposed in the GOP.
Luntz is a big lobbyist for big tech. But let's keep exposing the darkness to light.

a reply to: elevatedone

I think it was a big mistake to ban Trump, period. Especially for the reasons they gave which they all know are complete horsewillies. Just like his sham impeachments, etc. It'll bite them in the end.

a reply to: elevatedone

Nothing will happen.

This is the political version of "Angry old man shakes fist at cloud".

Break it up, it’s ok with me. I don’t like being censored by those A holes at farce book.

a reply to: elevatedone

Facebook at the very least should be forced to separate from Instagram and Whatsapp. They should be spun off into separate companies.

Some of the nastiest stuff Facebook does though isn't even in America. In the Philippines and other countries Facebook bribes phone companies into providing 'free data' that can access Facebook only. Given the way load is added to phones there, it means there's a lot of people who end up only accessing the internet through Facebook. Facebook is pretty much the dominant communication platform and is used for pretty much everything there.

a reply to: seeker1963

And wasnt it Mitch McConnel who was found to have ties to the CCP?

He huffs and puffs before the cameras and then probably dines with his Democrat pals at night.

Thankfully however, the Woke CEOs of the big corporations are dropping their funding to the GOP; it'll be outa money before the mid-terms and may well lose more seats in Congress. Cause remember, most folks are thinking, "I like stimulus checks on top of unemployment and free child care and free medical care......I'lll vote for those guys."

So government control is needed to prevent a private business from operating how it sees fit...

"but but but"

"whatabout"

all of this complaining and whining is pathetic, but i'm not surprised by it.

What exactly does Facebook have a monopoly on? Last time I checked the were numerous social media companies valued in the billions. Seems like that's a lot of competitors that are not only allowed to exist, but thrive in a market Republicans claim is monopolized by Facebook.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

There is no free speech in a monopoly.
So, there is only two ways to go, IMHO.

People stop visiting FB.....TOTALLY!
Do what they did to Standard OIl.....

Either, or both

a reply to: wheresthebody

all of this complaining and whining is pathetic, but i'm not surprised by it.

Agreed , but it's also quite amusing too.

I thought the Donald was going to start his own social media site , wonder what ever happened to that.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

You're currently on a social media site complaining about the evils of Facebook with no repercussion. What exactly does Facebook have a monopoly on?

a reply to: SlapMonkey

...What should NOT happen is that [anyone] conspire to force free speech into the policies of private companies.

You're either not familiar with basic human rights, or you're a little bit mental, either way, thanks for the laugh.

a reply to: gortex

It turned into a blog, announced yesterday

a reply to: Xcalibur254


gs.statcounter.com...

Facebook 69.87%

Twitter 9.62%

Pinterest 8.96%

YouTube 5.97%

Instagram 3.69%

reddit 0.75%

Reminder Facebook also owns Instagram.

Also, Pinterest is likely inflated because of google search result spam.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

How the Free Market Incentivized Facebook’s Harmful Monopoly

www.cigionline.org...

And that is, indeed, what Facebook has become: not just a monopoly, but a natural monopoly. The company is, without doubt, a monopoly; it possesses dominant share in several subsectors of the consumer internet industry, be they social media, web-based text messaging or photo-sharing. That dominant share qualifies as monopoly in most major markets; in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has, in the past, suggested that firms with more than a 50 percent market could constitute monopoly. In Europe, the lowest market share the European Commission has challenged for anticompetitive behaviours on the basis of monopoly power is 39.7 percent. Further, Facebook’s sub-markets (such as social media or web-based text messaging) are becoming increasingly economically important in society. The proof of this is that tremendous amounts of economic, social and political activity occur over platforms such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook and Instagram. Indeed, it can be argued that these sub-markets are so critically important to democratic societies that jurisdictions such as India, the United States, Europe and Canada (where such platforms are routinely used) should consider applying publicly developed standards on them to protect the public interest.