Mark Zuckerberg’s my friend but his ‘power has grown too big’ says Chris Hughes

.

tech2 News StaffJun 18, 2019 14:28:13 IST

Ever since US Senator Elizabeth Warren first called for breaking up Facebook in March this year, from former company executives to the company co-founder Chris Hughes, many other also highlighted the power growing too big in the hands of Facebook and its owner.

Quite naturally, Zuckerberg did not appreciate these claims, especially the one coming from Hughes and has apparently not been talking to him ever since Hughes publically called for breaking up Facebook.

“I still consider him a friend. I don’t have any personal, negative feelings for Mark,” Hughes said in an interview with Squawk Box. “The issue is that his power has grown too big because we’re not regulating our markets the way that we must,” he added.

Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, speaks during the Charles Schwab IMPACT 2010 conference in Boston, Massachusetts October 28, 2010. Image: REUTERS

Last month, Hughes published an opinion piece in The New York Times, making the case for why Facebook needs to be broken up. In the piece, which is close to 6,000-words long, Hughes urged the US Federal Trade Commission and the justice department to “undo” Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and to ban future mergers “for several years”.

“Mark’s influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government,” Hughes wrote.

(Also Read: Dark UX Design and Digital Loneliness: How technology is weaponised to keep you hooked on to social media)

Simultaneously, earlier this week, at the Code Conference 2019, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri shared why he thinks to break up Facebook’s platforms in a ‘terrible idea’. He said that breaking off Instagram from Facebook would mean more bad content on the platform as it would cut off Instagram from some of the content policing that happens thanks to Facebook’s integration. While agreeing that splitting Instagram from Facebook would make his life easier, Mosseri said it would still be a terrible idea.

Tech2 is now on WhatsApp. For all the buzz on the latest tech and science, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Tech2.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.

.. ..