Press Coverage

When Facebook came out, it changed the world, both online and off. Now, we can share our opinions, keep up with friends and family, and watch funny cat videos (All. Day. Long). And with more than two billion users, Facebook has a larger population than some countries. So, the question is, should Facebook be regulated as a public utility?

As I said when I sat down with Sue Fennessy and guest host Matthew Cooke on PoliticKING with Larry King, in my opinion as a social media lawyer, the answer is not yet. While the Internet may be considered a public utility, especially because utility companies provide Internet access, being a Facebook user is totally optional. You can choose not to be on Facebook without any repercussions, but it’s much harder to choose not to have electricity or water flowing into your house.

This doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be any form of regulation. As Facebook becomes closer and closer to becoming a utility, there needs to be regulations in place to make sure this social platform doesn’t operate like the Wild West. After all, Facebook is a place where a lot of people get the majority of their news, and Facebook decides what can be shared and what will be censored. So there definitely needs to be more transparency about its internal processes, and perhaps even regulations, so we can keep using Facebook, the most widely used website in existence, as a reliable source for information.

If Facebook becomes regulated as a utility, what will that look like? The process would have to be intense and take many issues into account, like will users own their data? How will we maintain social media compliance? If posts are censored or banned, does that become a First Amendment issue or is it still an internal issue at Facebook? What are the social media legal risks? Will there have to be different Facebooks for different countries, and if you’re using Facebook outside of the United States but are a U.S. citizen or resident, will you have to abide by the rules of your country or the country you’re in?

As time goes by, this issue is going to come up more and more. And while the government would love to crack down on Facebook and open it up to strict regulations, do they have the right to impose that on a private company? We’ll have to wait and see about that. Meanwhile, with all of these changes and conversations happening, it’s an exciting time to be a social media law firm.