CWA: Break Up Facebook

The Communications Workers of America has joined the Freedom from Facebook coalition, according to that group, and is backing the effort to get the Federal Trade Commission to break the company up.

“We should all be deeply concerned by Facebook’s power over our lives and democracy," said CWA strategist Brian Thorn in a statement. "It’s time for the FTC to hold Facebook accountable, impose strong privacy rules on the platform, and break up the monopoly. Anything else would be unfair to the American people, our privacy, and our democracy.”

Related: Newspapers to Zuckerberg: Get Real

ISPs have been calling on Washington to start recognizing the massive power and influence edge providers have over privacy and data collection and act accordingly

The message has been getting through, particularly to Congress by serial revelations about Facebook's handling and sharing of user data.

CWA has some history with Facebook. It filed a class action lawsuit last December against employers it said was using Facebook to screen out older job applicants. 

Freedom from Facebook wants the FTC to find that Facebook is in violation of its 2011 consent decree and then break up the company.

Coalition members include The Open Markets Institute, Demand Progress, Citizens Against Monopoly, Content Creators Coalition, and MoveOn Civic Action.

CWA represents over 700,000 workers, including in the news, broadcast and cable sectors.  

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.