Cutting Facebook down to size?

An excerpt from an editorial this week in the New York Times:

When the government broke up the telephone system in 1984, the fact that AT&T could count most citizens as customers and that it was arguably the best-run telephone company in the world was not deemed compelling enough to preserve its monopoly power. The breakup would unleash a wave of competition and innovation that ultimately benefited consumers and the economy.

Facebook seems to be in a similar position today — only with far greater global reach than Ma Bell could have imagined. Facebook’s 2 billion monthly active users, have made it the most powerful communications and media company in the world.

And that power is being abused. As The New York Times reported Tues- day, Facebook shared data with at least four Chinese electronics firms, including one flagged by U.S. officials as a national security threat. It (also) allowed phone and other devicemakers, including Amazon, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft, to see vast amounts of your personal information without your knowledge. And (that reporting) follows the even darker revelation that Facebook allowed a trove of information, including users’ education levels, likes, locations and religious and political affiliations, to be exploited by the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica to manipulate potential voters for its Republican Party clients.

At some point a government agency might be willing to break away some of its components and chop it down to size. After all, it’s happened before.