Facebook co-founder calls for breakup of social media giant, says Mark Zuckerberg has 'unchecked power'

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes called Thursday for regulators to break up the social media giant, arguing that his former business associate Mark Zuckerberg has “unchecked power.”

In a lengthy opinion piece for the New York Times, Hughes, who attended Harvard University with Zuckerberg and sold off his Facebook shares in 2012, said Facebook holds a monopoly among social media platforms. Hughes called on the U.S. government to “hold Mark accountable,” adding that Zuckerberg’s “focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks.”

“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 wrote. “It is time to break up Facebook.”

Facebook and Zuckerberg have drawn unprecedented scrutiny in recent years for a variety of scandals, including the rise of fake news on its platform and the role it may have played in influencing the 2016 election cycle. The company’s admission last year that a British data firm, Cambridge Analytica, had improperly accessed the personal information of up to 87 million users, generated calls for regulation of the industry.

Aside from Hughes, 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has called for a breakup of tech leaders such as Facebook, Amazon and Google, arguing that the companies have engaged in anticompetitive mergers and other unfair business practices.

Facebook is expected to pay a $5 billion fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission inquiry, and the company disclosed last month that it has already set aside a large amount of cash to address the bill. But Hughes said the fine is “not enough,” adding that the FTC made a mistake by allowing Facebook to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp.

“When it hasn’t acquired its way to dominance, Facebook has used its monopoly position to shut out competing companies or has copied their technology.” Hughes said.

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Facebook pushed back on Hughes' assertions, arguing that regulation, not a breakup, would address the concerns of company critics.

“Facebook accepts that with success comes accountability. But you don’t enforce accountability by calling for the breakup of a successful American company,” said Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications. “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. Indeed, he is meeting Government leaders this week to further that work.”