
Facebook is a utility; utilities get regulated - barticz
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/05/15/facebook-is-a-utility-utilities-get-regulated.html
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grellas
Legally, public utilities generally are natural monopolies and are either
publicly owned or regulated precisely because of that fact.

To say that any company that has a dominant market share of a product category
or service that people depend upon is a public utility would have meant, over
the years, that IBM (mainframes), Microsoft (desktop computers), Apple
(digital music players), and many other companies should have been or should
be treated as targets for regulation. Public utility regulation means setting
tariffs that regulate pricing, requiring the regulated companies to file
formal applications and to provide justifications for requesting pricing
increases, and setting detailed rules and regulations about making sure all
customers have reasonable access to the service, etc. These various concepts
make perfect sense for a monopoly that provides electricity, water, or some
such thing to the public at large; they make no sense whatever outside that
context.

I interpret this piece as saying, in effect, that many people use Facebook in
their daily lives and that FB is asking for it if it goes about tricking and
deceiving its users with respect to the use of their data. That is a fair
point, and who knows what the legal ramifications will be if FB continues to
abuse the trust of their users. That said, it does not really fit to try to
classify FB as some sort of public utility - perhaps rhetorically, for effect,
but certainly not legally.

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stretchwithme
if facebook is indeed committing fraud, they should be prosecuted.

I don't agree about the "natural monopoly" reasoning. Companies are dominant
because they deliver a better value proposition. And if they stop, as they
often do, competitors creep in and take away their customers. Except where the
government gets involved to establish a legal regulated monopoly. Then the
competition is all over and then nothing improves after that.

We went through this with package delivery, phone service, and airlines with
monopolies on specific routes. All significantly improved after competition
was reintroduced. Competition is the ultimate regulator.

And facebook has plenty of competition.

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goodside
The government should start regulating MySpace. Social networks are only
useful in proportion to how many of your friends are on them, so there's no
possibility of MySpace ever being dethroned from the dominant market share
it's held in the US for most of this decade. They could make their service as
awful and morally repugnant as they wanted, and nobody would ever leave
because no viable competitor could ever exist.

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coderdude
It sounded like she just wanted to call Facebook a utility so she could keep
repeating the phrase "utilities get regulated." How about "utilities are
typically paid for."

~~~
jrockway
A public utility can still harm you, even if they aren't competent enough to
make any money off of you. If anything, Facebook is so desperate for revenue
that they might be willing to "push the envelope" in a way that directly harms
you.

Anyway, I don't care, because I don't use Facebook. But a lot of people are
being strung along in ways they don't understand, and that's generally a bad
thing. (It's also bad for me -- if everyone is willing to give up their
privacy in exchange for pictures of their friends drinking beer, it means it
will become socially unacceptable for other people to want privacy. And that
_is_ bad for me -- someone who does want privacy.)

~~~
coderdude
Water, electricity, natural gas, and Facebook? I just don't think we can
classify Facebook as a utility (in the sense suggested in the article), no
matter how useful it is to so many people. We don't pay for it and we don't
need it.

~~~
mattmanser
I don't pay for radio stations and yet I bet they're regulated.

Arguments that rely on 'it's free' are weak.

Just because much of the web is free, with it's low running costs, doesn't
mean that it shouldn't be regulated. News sites are covered by plenty of
regulation just because they originally came out of print media.

Although I agree calling it a utility is wrong to try and convince people it
should be regulated.

It's only a matter of time before facebook gets thwacked with regulation over
here in the EU. Not because it's a utility but because it can cause so much
social harm with its desire to make money. The bait and switch going on at
facebook should definitely be stopped.

~~~
scott_s
Radio stations are granted access to a public resource: the airwaves. Hence
they are subject to regulation. That doesn't map well to the current
discussion.

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russell
I too was going to jump in to rant that she misused the concept "utility", but
since this is HN not /., I decided to read the article. Her point is that it
may not be a utility in the hole in the street kind, but people are using it
as such. She believes that the breaches in trust and privacy and trust are
going to engender heavy handed regulation to the determent of everyone. She
may have a point. It's not just a privacy issue, but an abuse of expectations.

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whyenot
Her point that Facebook's privacy issues will bring (possibly heavy handed)
regulation to social networks doesn't seem far off to me. Senator Chuck
Schumer has already written a letter to the FTC requesting that the agency set
up "guidelines" for how social networking sites may use personal information.
Four senators have also written a "letter of concern" to Facebook over recent
privacy gaffes. Legislation is almost certainly currently in the works. If not
at the federal level, then at the state level. The end result probably won't
be pretty, and has the potential to hurt a lot more than just Facebook.
Imagine if a small project like Diaspora had to worry about something similar
to HIPAA compliance...

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FluidDjango
Utilities get regulated generally when they are exempted from anti-monopoly
restraints and given special access to a population.

Anyone is free to launch an alternative and compete with FB as FB did with
MySpace.

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alanh
Danah’s previous article on Facebook:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1348599>

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ghost11
Great, we go from startup-loving independents to promoting Soviet-style
control of a social networking site. If you don't like it, quit. It won't make
any real difference in your life. You can't say that about water or
electricity.

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jaxn
How could Facebook be a utility the the Internet isn't a utility. And if the o
ternet was a utility, how would regulation play with net neutrality?

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known
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving,
subsidize it. --Reagon

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waterlesscloud
Google would rank infinitely higher on the "is a utility" scale.

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jasonlbaptiste
HN is a huge utility for me. Let's have the gov regulate it. I've tolerated
the FB articles so far but this was plain ole fishing.

