Facebook has more money than God.  They can keep that tied up in a decade of litigation before it goes anywhere.

HAHA if you don't think they are smart enough to continue to operate as lots of smaller entities stealing your data and using your private information to make money, I am not sure what to tell you.

The time to act was as it was growing.

It's mostly going to be "talk". There will be some concessions made, but if you don't think a good chunk of Facebooks development process is already working on how they will continue as close to business as usual, I have a bridge to sell you :)

America has a history of bringing all-powerful monopolies to heel. Look up 19th century trust busters and Teddy Roosevelt. Check out the railways and the Interstate Commerce Commission. Look at the breakup of the Bell system in 1984 and the legal actions against Microsoft. You can laugh all you like but Facebook is not immune from this, and neither are Google and Amazon. That is why they all dance on eggshells whenever the subject comes up. They are terrified of regulation.

That was probably before half of the government officials had some kind of financial stake in these orgs and benefit from the way they operate.  

(no citation for my assumed number, but surely it has to be a majority)

gehenna:

 

That was probably before half of the government officials had some kind of financial stake in these orgs and benefit from the way they operate.  

 

(no citation for my assumed number, but surely it has to be a majority)

 

19th-century politicians were even more corrupt than they are today. A lot of the checks and balances that exist now stem from that time.