Facebook Inc has rejected the call of co-founder Chris Hughes to split the world's largest social networking company, and lawmakers called on the US Department of Justice to launch an antitrust investigation, Reuters reported.
Facebook is under the scrutiny of regulators around the world amid practice of sharing data, as well as inciting hatred and misinformation. Some US lawmakers insist on actions aimed at disbanding major technology companies, as well as on federal privacy regulations.
“We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well intentioned the leaders of these companies may be. Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” Hughes, a former college roommate of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, wrote in a lengthy New York Times opinion piece.
Facebook has more than 2 billion users. It also owns WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, each using over 1 billion people.
Facebook rejected Hughes' call to turn WhatsApp and Instagram into separate companies and said that he should focus on regulating the Internet instead.
“Facebook accepts that with success comes accountability. But you don’t enforce accountability by calling for the break up of a successful American company,” Facebook spokesman Nick Clegg said in a statement. “Accountability 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.”
Senator Mike Crapo, a Republican who chairs the banking committee, and Democrat Sherrod Brown asked Facebook to answer questions about a potential payment system based on cryptocurrency using social networking and data collection. The letter also asked questions about the protection of consumer privacy and whether there is information about the creditworthiness of users.
Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal told CNBC that Facebook should be separated and that the antitrust department of the Justice Department should launch an investigation.
Antitrust law makes such a proposal tough to execute because the government would have to take the company to court and win. It is rare to break up a company but not unheard of, with Standard Oil and AT&T being the two biggest examples.
