Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff signaled his support for Facebook to divide up its acquisitions like Instagram and Whatsapp in an interview Wednesday, October 16, with CNN.
“It’s addictive, it’s not good for you, they’re after your kids, they’re running political ads that aren’t true … and they’re also acquiring other companies and co-mingling [data those companies have on their users] into theirs,” Benioff said, referencing Facebook (FB)’s acquisitions of Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms. “And I think at that point, because they’re now doing that, that they probably should be broken up. Because they’re having an undue influence as the largest social media platform on the planet,” he said.
The Silicon Valley mogul pointed to the fact that most Americans don’t know that Facebook owns Instagram and Whatsapp as part of his reasoning for breaking up Facebook, noting that “all of those services are being integrated to get a 360-degree view of you, so that they’re able to directly position you.”
This isn’t the first time that Benioff has expressed his misgivings about Facebook, having previously suggested in 2018 that the company should be regulated like the cigarette industry. “They’re addictive, they’re not good for you, maybe there are all kinds of forces trying to get you to do certain things, there’s a lot of parallels,” Benioff said.
Full Content: CNN
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
