---
date: '2018-09-04'
title: 'Time to break up Facebook'
description: "...the chilling effect of Facebook and other tech giants buying up every promising startup is noticeable. 'I think if we have a tech economy entirely premised on the idea that monopolists may one day buy the underlying thing, it really limits what can happen,' says Wu."
tags: ['politics', 'social media', 'privacy']
---

**[The Verge:](https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/4/17816572/tim-wu-facebook-regulation-interview-curse-of-bigness-antitrust)**

> ... the chilling effect of Facebook and other tech giants buying up every promising startup is noticeable. "I think if we have a tech economy entirely premised on the idea that monopolists may one day buy the underlying thing, it really limits what can happen," says Wu.<!-- excerpt -->
> ...
> "Facebook sits down with someone and says, 'We could steal the functionality and bring it into the mothership, or you could sell to us at this distressed price.'"
> ...
> "There's really nothing to stop Facebook from swallowing all of these verticals."
> ...
> "Unless you believe that we want one ruling master of all social networking, and it should be Mark Zuckerberg… then there's no good reason not to break it up," he adds. "What's the argument against it?"
