Sharpening the double-edged sword:

The Zuck is on the Hill, facing off against a panel of Senatorial Congress Critters:

Some of the toughest questioning so far comes from Sen. Lindsey Graham, who pushes Zuckerberg on whether Facebook is a monopoly.

When asked straight up whether Facebook has a monopoly, Zuckerberg responds “It certainly doesn’t feel like that to me.” The response is met with some gentle laughter.

Graham stays on him, also asking about European regulations and if those rules are right.

“I think they get things right,” Zuckerberg responds, followed by a few more light chuckles.

Chuckles aside, ask yourself this: “When has government regulation ever worked out all that well?” And I’m talking from a freedom of action perspective.

As big, bad, intrusive, and even dangerous as Facebook may be, I’m not aware of them, or any other Social, ever putting a gun to anyone’s head to compel usage, payment, or actions. I could be wrong; I would have asked about it had I been there…

The same cannot be said for government, any government. They have been known to point and click with guns and worse weapons. The State is force. Period.

Facebook, and all the socials, already fall under one form or existing regulation or another. There’s a reason Zuck is being so polite and helpful seeming today. He knows that, with 55 million or 80 million privacy violations, Facebook could be FTC fined out of existence. It won’t be but it could be.

Rather, I see a bunch of Uniparty animals chomping at the bit to further intrude into the internet – for our good and safety and all of course. Is that really what we need?

I assume the answer from most Americans is a big, blank, unconcerned, drooling stare.

UPDATE: A few things:

• Listening to many of these questions and grandstands is more cringeworthy than most of the answers. “I do’h wanna reg-ya-late ya but golly gee ah will!”
• Today privacy is largely an illusion – especially if you willingly put yourself out there without encryption, VPNs, etc. You do that? Buyer, escuse me, … freebie user beware.
• A good friend reminded me that we’ve all known that the government tracks, records, stores, and misappropriates all electronic communications and that we’ve known it for years. (Originally one of them thar crazy conspiracy theories…) Knowing all that, how many folks do NOT use email, socials, and phones? Yeah.
• NO! Most people don’t read disclaimers. That would require reading.
• Large corporations LOVE regulation. It’s not them versus the government. It’s them and the government versus you and any poor startups. “Protecting” you by ensuring their monopolies and increased profits.
• We’re witnessing the mass slander of the free market and the sense of the people. The latter might be warranted.
• “Senator. Senator… Senator!” How about: “listen scumbag” and “you criminals”?
• With all these idiots babbling about the complexity of the user agreements, Zuck could just answer: “Enough about me. How about YOUR tax code?”
• Can’t believe I’m taking the side of Zuck and Co. here.
• Geeze…

Zuck it up. Drudge.