Facebook co-founder says Mark Zuckerberg is a nice but powerful person

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes said he's been a friend of Mark Zuckerberg for more than a decade. But now, Hughes is against Zuckerberg and the company he helped create.

"Mark is a good and kind person," Hughes told CBS This Morning on Friday about his old friend. "He has too much power."

Hughes wrote Thursday in an opinion piece in The New York Times that he was angry that "Zuckerberg's emphasis on growth had led to the sacrifice of safety and security. civility for clicks ". Hughes said Friday that Facebook was a monopoly that had to be broken.

"Just as we did with Standard Oil, AT & T, we say:" It's a monopoly, the market is frozen, there's no competition and it's There is no responsibility, "said Hughes. "And the government must step in and break the process."

Hughes said that users had virtually no place on social media, with the exception of Facebook, and that increased competition would help the company to be held accountable.

"What goes on, is that there is another privacy scandal, or other electoral scandal, apparently every week, at least every month," Hughes said. "And then people get outraged, they're so angry, they say," Oh, I'm leaving Facebook, I'm going on Instagram, "not realizing that Instagram is owned by Facebook, and then they're resigned to us. may "do nothing. "

Why not just leave social media? According to Hughes, social media sites are as essential to Americans as smartphones, but unlike this market, Facebook does not have enough competition.

"With Facebook, there's really no other place to go in. Facebook generates 85% of revenue from the social media industry," said Hughes. "Are you going to LinkedIn?"

Hughes is confident that liability may stem from government intervention, despite the perception that lawmakers have no idea of ​​things such as social media following Zuckerberg's testimony on Capitol Hill.

"There are a lot of people who are anything but naive in government." Hughes said. "There is leadership emerging, and I will say, not just on Facebook, but on monopolies in general."

Hughes said that he felt responsible for Facebook because it was part of the company's early days. He said that he had become uncomfortable with Facebook in 2016. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Hughes said that he had started talking and had some exchanges with Zuckerberg about these issues. But he does not know if his friendship with Zuckerberg will last.

"I really do not know if we're going to be friends," said Hughes. "Probably not, but there are friendships with which you have disagreements, and big ones, and you always remain friends."