Following comments from Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes that it is time to split up the social tech monopoly, the former politician came to its defence.
Hughes, in piece for the New York Times, made the case that Facebook should not have been allowed to acquire social media platform Instagram and messaging platform Whatsapp.
He has called for Facebook to break up, to sell off the units it acquired including Instagram and WhatsApp, and to introduce a ban on similar new acquisitions.
He has also suggested that a new federal agency should oversee Facebook and its competitors.
Facebook鈥檚 current share structure allows the Facebook CEO power to veto matters of company policy, despite holding a minority of its shares.
It is a matter which Hughes argues called for US 鈥榓ntitrust鈥� laws to be introduced, which prevent a company from gaining an unfairly large footing in a given market.
鈥淪ome people doubt that an effort to break up Facebook would win in the courts, given the hostility on the federal bench to antitrust action, or that this divided Congress would ever be able to muster enough consensus to create a regulatory agency for social media,鈥� he wrote in his 鈥業t鈥檚 Time to Break Up Facebook鈥� piece.
In response to the call for action, former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, now VP of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, said the social media giant should be regulated by new 鈥榬ules for the internet鈥�.
鈥淔acebook accepts that with success comes accountability. But you don鈥檛 enforce accountability by calling for the breakup of a successful American company,鈥� he said.
鈥淎ccountability of tech companies can only be achieved through the painstaking introduction of new rules for the internet. That is exactly what Mark Zuckerberg has called for.鈥�