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Facebook's problems can be solved by regulation, not by the dissolution of the company, said a company official in the New York Times.
"We are subject to more regulations than at any other time in the company's history, but we feel that more needs to be done," writes Nick Clegg, vice president of international affairs and marketing. The social media giant's communication in an editorial titled "Breaking Up Facebook Is Not The Answer" appears in the print edition of the Sunday newspaper and was posted online Saturday. Clegg was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and joined Facebook in October 2018.
Clegg's article responds to the provocative suggestion made in an opinion piece by Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, in the New York Times on May 9, titled "It's time to break with Facebook." . " Hughes sued Sunday in an interview for CNN's "Almost Unilateral Power" held by CEO and Facebook chairman Mark Zuckerberg, across the social media empire and its billions of users.
Hughes says lawmakers are just marveling at Facebook's explosive growth and have neglected their own responsibility to protect the public through increased competition, writes Clegg. He says this reflects misunderstandings about the "central objective" of antitrust law.
"It's hard to support the claim that Facebook is a monopoly," says Clegg. Most of Facebook's revenue, he writes, comes from digital advertising and the company holds an estimated 20% market share in the US online advertising market.
Antitrust legislation, he adds, aims to protect consumers by guaranteeing them access to low-cost, high-quality goods and services. The laws "are not meant to punish a company because people do not agree with its direction," he writes.
Clegg believes governments should set rules in four areas: reducing harmful content, protecting democratic elections, supporting unified rules for data privacy, and facilitating data transfer by individuals.
"Anyone who is worried about the challenges we face in an online world must seek to properly enforce the rules of the internet and not dismantle successful American businesses," writes Clegg.
-Bloomberg News with Ad Age staff
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