Fall of the Empire

When Edward Gibbon wrote in 1776 his then comprehensive history of what happened to Rome and the civilization it created, he probably never realized that “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” could just as easily have been about 21st century Facebook. But in fact, watching Facebook’s self-immolation is very much like watching the collapse of Rome over the course of 1,500 years, but in a much shorter time. Make no mistake, Facebook is dying. It’s in a slow-motion collapse around its structures and users who don’t see it clearly, yet.

And just as vestiges of Rome and its empire remain, so will parts of Facebook. But the edifice is crumbling, and the signs are everywhere. In addition to Facebook’s very bad week last week that started with a systemic collapse from what should have been an easily fixed misconfiguration. Then on another front, word came from The New York Times that Facebook was under criminal investigation for its data sharing deals with a variety of technology companies, including Amazon and Apple.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is negotiating a multibillion-dollar penalty for Facebook’s violations of its consent agreement. And in the UK, Parliament physically compelled the turnover of secret Facebook documents that show a breathtaking disregard for user privacy—and a knowing, intentional effort to violate laws on the use of personal information. The UK has requested that the FTC assist in its investigation.

In Europe, Facebook is already under investigation for violations of the GDPR. Those investigations are well along. Already Facebook is facing fines of €1.6 billion and has already been fined £500,000 in the UK for its illegal activities. And there’s more to come.

The only reason you’re not reading about criminal penalties in the U.S. is because a dysfunctional federal government can’t find a way to pass privacy protection regulations. But the states in the U.S. may take care of that. In a meeting of state attorneys general in Washington recently, there was much discussion about ways the states can rein in technology companies, especially Facebook. Meanwhile, the attorney general for the District of Columbia went to court to sue Facebook over deception in its collecting and monetizing of user data.

It’s beginning to sound like in addition to being a social media platform, Facebook may also be a criminal enterprise. While there’s currently no indication that the Department of Justice is looking at RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges, the DoJ is still investigating Facebook about the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and that is likely to result in charges. Whether those charges could be part of a larger RICO investigation depend on what other charges might considered. Most of the possible components of RICO don’t involve Facebook, but there’s always wire fraud and obstruction of justice, and RICO only needs two.