Investor Chamath Palihapitiya made part of his fortune on Facebook, where he was vice president for more than four years, leaving a year before his IPO in 2012.
Although he has expressed concerns over his former employer on several occasions since, he also believes that he has played an active role in allowing users to report and disseminate important information. For example, he suggests that it was smartphones and social media that made so many Americans aware of the George Floyd tragedy and allowed citizens of the United States and at least 12 other countries to organize protests against racism. Without these platforms, he suggests, we could even be engaged in a traditional civil war in this country.
That doesn't mean Facebook or others of its gigantic peers are no longer immune to regulation, however - not in its opinion. As Palihapitiya said today about companies at an online technology event: "Will they separate? Yes. Will all governments prosecute them? Absolutely."
His more specific prediction is that Facebook, as well as Amazon, Google and Apple, will continue to be investigated and fined by regulators around the world until they are no longer the leviathans. they became. "First they will be taxed to death, then they will be destroyed," said Palihapitiya.
He also doesn't think it will take much longer.
While investors are currently being rewarded for "investing long" in companies as they grow largely unabated, Palihapitiya said that, "on the sidelines, over the next 10 years. . . regulators will get their way "because" these Internet companies are undermining what regulators want, that is, power. And the more power and information you distribute around the edges, the more you will be in the crosshairs. (Palihapitiya noted that the only large tech company that has not become the target of antitrust regulators is Microsoft, and he suggested that it should not be spared forever either. He more or less believes that the company got a break, after the decree consent approved in 2002 which limited some of Microsoft's practices and which only expired in 2011.)
Interestingly, no matter how big Facebook is going to be in the future, Palihapitiya thinks the "pendulum is going to tip over so it's more of a sort of Central American, like" Fox News ", social media, as Twitter turns to "coastal cities in the United States." It's already easy to see these "demographic segmentations occurring among these huge products," he said.
This latest development could be much closer. Kevin Roose, a columnist for the New York Times covering the intersection of technology, business and culture, occasionally tweets about top performing Facebook posts. Yesterday, as is often the case, research was strongly tilted towards conservative figures and themes.
The most successful publications on Facebook today (link publications only, classified by interactions, data from @crowdtangle) come from:
1. Donald J. Trump
2. Franklin Graham
3. Fox News
4. Fox News
5. Ben Shapiro
6. Ben Shapiro
7. Ben Shapiro
8. Blue Lives Matter
9. Occupy Democrats
10. Sean Hannity- Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) June 16, 2020
Teased by FT interviewer Robin Wigglesworth about how Facebook might react to the comparison, Palihapitiya bluntly said of the different platforms: "The content reinforces the type of person who wants to use it." It is no different today than when you choose to watch MSNBC vs. CBS vs. Fox News. "
