Senators have no idea how Facebook works, want to regulate it anyway

reason.com

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> Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) asked whether Facebook had any major competitors. Zuckerberg tried to explain that the company competes across different categories related to Facebook's several main functions—as a tech giant, against Google, as a social media site, against Twitter, and so on—which led Graham to fret about Facebook being a monopoly and thus incapable of self-regulation.

IIRC, Graham had a good point. At his point, Facebook has no real competitors that offer an equivalent service.

To continue the analogy from the question: Zuck's dodge was a lot like a monopolist automaker trying to pass off Sony as a competitor because they both sell products with AM/FM radios.

This is why selling access to people based on private personal data should be a crime with prison sentences for the responsible parties. Motivate the people in charge to find a solution. Don't tell them your solution.

Aren't these the same people who were being asked to regulate ISPs during the net neutrality debate?

Aren't they also the same people you (generic you, in case you're not American) voted in?

Yep, not me personally, but a majority of voters in my country chose these senators.

Exactly. And they are the ones who write laws for us. Some even far more important than ISP regulations or what to do with Facebook.

Exactly. Maybe we should not ask them to regulate what they do not understand?

That's sort of their job, to regulate things.

I was gong to say trying to elect people who at least know what they don't know might be a better approach.

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