Facebook learned the lesson of MySpace; buy any competitor that looks like it's gaining traction. Facebook has the resources to engage in this strategy. It's going to be a lot harder to disrupt Facebook as a company than it was to disrupt MySpace. I'm not claiming this is a reason to regulate Facebook. Just that saying MySpace was disrupted is not a reason to not regulate Facebook.

Facebook won't be able to buy up a distributed open-source p2p alternative.

A p2p alternative isn't likely to be able to compete due to the massive income generated by Facebook's advertising platform.

actually, that's the point of p2p: it doesn't cost developers anything. I don't have to "win" at market share to make it either, just enough mass to develop a self-sustaining community of users and developers. I don't have to make a ton of money for it to be worth it either. my infrastructure costs are effectively zero, so I'm really paying for my time. I can use liberapay and crypto to take donations/tips, I can sell my expertise in p2p as a contractor, &c.

the most important point is that I can keep going indefinitely as long as I don't get bored, because you can't outspend me if it doesn't cost me anything to keep going.

Not necessarily. For instance, Facebook still can't get rid of email.

> a distributed open-source p2p alternative

Like talking to people, in real life: face to face?

They're making a dent in that.

I suspect that state actors won’t allow such a system to reach critical mass.

Facebook has sufficient accumulation of capital to make this impossible. Build something good enough to challenge them and you will get purchased.

Facebook does not have the power to force people to sell to them. They do not have the power to force people to use Facebook. That's a fact. It's a free website, that people use of their own accord, at their own discretion. Just like someone that chooses to read NYT.

The call to regulate a free press (Facebook) is far more disturbing than any targeted advertising Facebook is engaged in.

FB’s power is not a binary of either “can force” or “can’t force.” But they can offer an amount so high it’s hard to say no, and they can manipulate their users’ attention in ever more complex and subtle ways.

I don’t consider FB a pure evil, just a potential danger. Their moral hazard is comparable to that of a heroin dealer—-they are incentivized to get you using the product as much as possible, regardless of the possibility that more than a small amount could be harmful.

Offering an extremely high price that surpasses the sellers expectations + potential buyers remorse and making a sale "hard to say no to" is not force. It is not Don Corleone making an offer they cannot refuse. Let's not equate voluntary exchange with a mugging

I agree, it’s not force. I just don’t think “force” in the literal sense is required to make it a scary situation.

If they have to buy you, then its not really a monopoly. Thats how you would constantly gnaw at their position.

Assuming that they accrete whatever they buy and use it, that strategy has less and less effect over time,

So don't say yes when they offer to purchase you