A monopolist's first preference is not to be regulated.

A monopolist's second preference is to be regulated in a way that only it can comply with - and that none of its competitors can comply with.

1/

Oh, hai, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg!

"I think [the insurrection was] largely organized on platforms that don’t have our abilities to stop hate, and don’t have our standards, and don’t have our transparency."

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1348721745688211460

2/

Translation: make rules that ban all the smaller platforms that compete with us, otherwise Qanon-addled musketfuckers will hogtie Congress with zip-cuffs and execute them under the Capitol Dome.

3/

Even if that was true (and to be clear, IT IS NOT TRUE), it would be a terrible idea.

But (again): IT'S NOT TRUE.

"Facebook played a much larger role than Sandberg suggested."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/facebook-role-in-capitol-protest/

4/

* 128,000 people used FB discuss the rally, many planned their trip using it

* 24+ GOP politicians used FB to organize buses to the event

Oh, and despite claiming otherwise FB STILL hasn't shut down election disinformation groups:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/stop-the-steal-facebook

5/

As @mmasnick says: "it's just gaslighting people to pretend that Facebook has the power to moderate away all bad behavior, and even dumber to pretend that no such planning happened on your platform."

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210113/17592046050/sheryl-sandberg-makes-disingenuous-push-to-argue-that-only-facebook-has-power-to-stop-bad-people-online.shtml

6/

Sandberg's position boils down to this: "if you're gonna get a fox to guard your henhouse, we should be that fox."

Image: Phil Catterall (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henhouse_near_Ganthorpe_-_geograph.org.uk_-_670026.jpg

CC BY-SA:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

eof/