Facebook Is a New Form of Power | TNR

Final paragraphs:

"Understanding the nature of Facebook’s power is important because only then does it become possible to critique it and overcome its bind. Seeing Facebook as a government doesn’t help with those goals. We can’t vote it out of office, and we can’t stage a revolution to overthrow it. Understanding Facebook as just a monopoly isn’t enough either. Even if the company’s subsidiaries, most notably Instagram and WhatsApp, were broken off the mother ship, Facebook would still be the largest social media company by a long way.

Government could, of course, stop Facebook from acquiring any more power. It could simply not allow Libra to go ahead. Some are beginning to think the government will choose to punish Facebook’s past sins in precisely this way. But it’s also important to conceptualize the type of power that Facebook is already wielding over our lives. Only then will we able to resist it."

Facebook Is a New Form of Power | TNR