Facebook breakup should focus on restoring competition, experts say - Business Insider

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Lawmakers want to break up Facebook, but experts say restoring competition through regulation should be the goal

Here's what three antitrust experts had to say about breaking up Facebook.A Facebook breakup would initiate more competition in the social media market, which would be good for users, according to"The primary beneficiary of competition is supposed to be consumers. We're supposed to get more of the kinds of things we want and prefer," said First, who previously served as chief of the Antitrust Bureau for New York's Office of the Attorney General.

A dismantling, he said, could take various forms. For example, a judge could tell Facebook to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. This could be difficult, considering the company has worked to heavily integrate the two platforms into its business, First said. Another idea could be to split the company right in half, and have two competing operations.

, the co-director of the JD/MBA program at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, said,"We're a long way off from talking about what a breakup would look like." He said when monopolies work to hurt competition, they will often use killer acquisitions, in which they over-pay to acquire a competing business and then kill the product. Facebook, he said, has not done that with Instagram and WhatsApp, but rather spent money to improve and integrate the products into its business.

 

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They need take FB down, Twitter as well. Force people back into real life!

thanks

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