I disagree. I don't think that solves the problem, at all.
One: Facebook is currently being accused of damaging democracy via misinformation and their "anger promoting" algorithm. That affects me, and my leaving Facebook doesn't solve that. Two: there is the monopoly issue (if that is the right word.... the issue I am concerned about lies on a spectrum, unlike many people's usage of "monopoly"). Prior to Facebook having dominance, I used to be in the loop of what my friends are doing, because they used phone, email, etc. Now they all use Facebook and my choice to not use it (which I don't, actually) results in my not being included in a huge number of things. In that sense, I think Facebook has become like a utility, like the phone company of old. I can't just find a social network product that I prefer, and use it instead.... my friends are not on it and other social networks are not interoperable with Facebook. (as phone providers and email providers are interoperable with one another)
Teens who use Facebook products are known to be harmed. Maybe you think they should just not use these products. That will cause even greater harm to their social lives than it causes to mine, since all their friends are using it and being connected with friends is very important to teens. Again, their simply not using the product doesn't address the problem. (and MY not using it especially doesn't help)
I think your comment is like saying "if you don't like constant robocalls, just cancel your phone plan rather than encourage laws to curtail them." Kind of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
So yeah, I'll exercise my right to vote by actually voting. Luckily, many representatives are in agreement with my perspective on this.
> Teens who use Facebook products are known to be harmed
There is nothing special about Facebook products that make them harmful.
It's a glorified message board which facilitates the exact same harmful social interaction that is prevalent on other sites e.g. TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat.
This idea that you can ban Facebook and Instagram and suddenly the internet is safe for kids is just ridiculous.
> There is nothing special about Facebook products that make them harmful.
Sure, there is. Addiction. People are addicted to this stuff. They're addicted to likes, reactions, seeing their follower numbers increase. They're addicted to the algorithmic content feeds. Facebook is actively working towards keeping it that way. They probably want to make it even more addictive. They want people using their software at all times in order to collect data and serve ads.
Why else would they C&D an unfollow extension developer? They want people to keep following so they get addicted to the infinite content plus ads feed.
Also, nobody is excusing any of the other sites you mentioned. There's plenty of things wrong with them as well and we'll condemn them for it. We're just focusing on Facebook right now because it's the subject of this particular thread.
I think this discussion applies to TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit as well. Facebook (along with Instagram) is probably the worst offender at the moment, but any laws that apply to Facebook would apply to others.
> This idea that you can ban Facebook and Instagram and suddenly the internet is safe for kids is just ridiculous.
Who said that? I don't think they should be banned, but I do think they should be regulated or otherwise held accountable. A big part of it might be being more transparent with their algorithm, and giving tools to users to control it more.
I think where we are is akin to back in the days where people realized that, no, we aren't going to ban buildings, but we are going to have building codes. We aren't going to ban food, but we are going to have an FDA. Etc. The free market doesn't address all problems.
