Lionel Laurent: EU just doesn’t like Facebook’s business case

It’s not very surprising that Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s state-visit-style trip to Brussels got a pretty chilly reception from EU officials.

Lionel Laurent: EU just doesn’t like Facebook’s business case

It’s not very surprising that Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s state-visit-style trip to Brussels got a pretty chilly reception from EU officials.

The Facebook co-founder is pleading for more regulation to solve what he, and his top lobbyist, Nick Clegg, consider to be a failure of public policy: If only governments could agree on how to regulate the internet without curbing free expression, the social network would be only too happy to comply.

This analysis is not new, and entirely misdiagnoses the problem, in the Europeans’ view: Facebook’s business model, which hoovers up billions of users’ intimate thoughts and behaviour patterns, to better target ads, is the issue.

And it’s one that the social network would prefer just to tinker with at the margins, given the costs involved.

Judging by Facebook’s new, 22-page paper on regulating online content, and Mr Zuckerberg’s published speeches, the company views its own misadventures as simply symptoms of a bigger online disease.

If regulators could just define harmful or illegal content, set the limits on free speech, quantify targets for the quality control that tech platforms should perform on their networks’ content — and do so at a global level — the results would be clear.

There’s an obvious self-interest on display here.

Aside from being short on detail and big on ‘stakeholder’ dialogue, Facebook’s vision would conveniently raise the barriers to entry for smaller rivals in a market that is already dominated by a handful of players, while itself continuing to benefit from the scale effects of keeping Whatsapp and Instagram under one roof.

Together, Facebook and Google controlled over half of digital ad revenue in 2018.

One-size-fits-all regulation would be ideal for a globe-straddling company that boasts billions of users, an array of interlocking and addictive apps, and which plans to launch its own digital currency to further lock people into its walled garden.

There would be less to fear from the idea of data ‘portability’ — even if users had the freedom to leave with all of their data and contacts, where else would they go?

Facebook might also be only too happy to push quantifiable regulatory targets onto its 30,000 frazzled and overloaded content moderators.

No wonder European commissioner Thierry Breton dismissed Mr Zuckerberg’s ideas as “too slow” and “too low,” in terms of accountability.

The real blind spot for Mr Zuckerberg is the Facebook business model, which is precisely what the EU wants the firm to address.

Mr Zuckerberg says he cannot be responsible for 100bn pieces of content — but that’s not really true.

It’s more that it would be very painful — possibly existential — for the economics of Facebook to hire the necessary moderators and engineers to make it happen.

Mr Zuckerberg’s idea that Facebook is somewhere between a newspaper and a telecom operator is exactly the kind of vision that European regulators reject: They are more inclined to view Facebook as a financial-services firm, where valuable consumer deposits — or personal data — rub up against speculative and risky activity, such as targeted advertising and monopoly power.

Systemic risk merits systemic scrutiny. Therein lies the challenge for Brussels.

So far, the sum total of regulatory action against Facebook is akin to “being nibbled to death by ducks,” a view recently expressed by Roger McNamee, one of Facebook’s earliest investors.

Facebook’s stock price slumped last month, after its results showed slowing growth and higher expenses, but it has since rebounded.

This is still a $610bn (€565bn) company, with an adjusted net income margin of 35%, which makes over $20bn in revenue per quarter.

Shareholder challenges to company management have hit the brick wall of Mr Zuckerberg’s absolute control of voting rights.

And despite some US politicians’ calls to break up Facebook, there’s increasing convergence between Mr Zuckerberg’s interests and US president Donald Trump’s geopolitical ambitions.

European attempts to better tax tech companies have resulted in swift US counter-blows on trade; Mr Trump also sees Facebook’s financial-services push as an extension of the dollar’s power.

If the aim is to change the way Facebook works, there will have to be a lot more biting going forward, from enforcement of privacy law and upgrading of competition law to more scrutiny of how the company’s algorithms and content moderation are working.

Otherwise, Mr Zuckerberg’s next visit to Brussels risks being depressingly familiar.

more courts articles

Man (25) in court charged with murdering his father and attempted murder of mother Man (25) in court charged with murdering his father and attempted murder of mother
Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van
Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman

More in this section

FILE PHOTO The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has cleared the purchase of Goodbody Stockbrokers by AIB END Goodbody Stockbrokers fined over €1.2m by Central Bank over rules breaches
Nottingham City Centre Stock Irish staff at the Body Shop wait for wages as retailer shuts stores in the Republic
Ryanair comments on Norwegian Ryanair boss O'Leary's spat with Transport Minister over Dublin Airport escalates
IE logo
Devices


UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE IRISH EXAMINER FOR TEAMS AND ORGANISATIONS
FIND OUT MORE

The Business Hub
Newsletter

News and analysis on business, money and jobs from Munster and beyond by our expert team of business writers.

Sign up
ie logo
Puzzles Logo

Play digital puzzles like crosswords, sudoku and a variety of word games including the popular Word Wheel

Lunchtime News
Newsletter

Keep up with the stories of the day with our lunchtime news wrap.

Sign up
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Brand Safety FAQ Help Contact Us Terms and Conditions

© Examiner Echo Group Limited