OREANDA-NEWS. Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook social network, wrote that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had too much power. In his column in The New York Times he called to the US authorities for intervention and putting an end to the monopoly of the network.

Hughes wrote that Zuckerberg had more influence than anyone in the government and the private sector. He stated that the authorities had ignored their responsibility to protect Americans and market competitiveness for a long time, being amazed at Facebook’s explosive growth.

As Hughes warns, Zuckerberg owns 60 % of the voting shares of Facebook, therefore he is able personally change the algorithms that affect what news users see, what privacy settings they can set and what messages reach a recipient. In fact, Zuckerberg sets the rules for social network users. He also can purchase, block the competitors or copy their models.

American people are a nation with a deep-rooted tradition of struggle against monopolies, Hughes said. He proved Facebook monopoly by statistics: about 70 % of US citizens use social networks every day, most of them visit sites owned by Facebook (the company also owns WhatsApp and Instagram).

Hughes also recalled the IBM case in 1970, when the US Department of Justice accused the company of an illegal monopoly on the sale of personal computers, and IBM company had ceased to bind its operating system to the hardware. According to Hughes, the same effect can be achieved in the case of Facebook company.

At the same time, Hughes called Zuckerberg “a good, kind person.” “But I'm angry that his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks”, he wrote.

Hughes was in the Facebook team since 2004. In 2007, he left the company to join Barack Obama’s election campaign. He worked on the website of the presidential candidate and his social information campaign.