Society is becoming increasingly dependent on data-rich, “Big Tech” platforms and social networks, such as Facebook and Google. But what happens to our data when these companies close or fail? Despite the high stakes involved, this topic has received only limited attention to date. In this article, we use the hypothetical failure of Facebook as a case study to analyse legal and ethical risks related to the closure of data-rich, Big Tech platforms. Focusing on the EU, we argue that existing governance frameworks are inadequate for addressing these risks and make preliminary recommendations with a view to setting an agenda for future research and policymaking on the demise of Big Tech platforms and data-rich companies more broadly.
The authors argue
Facebook has, in large parts of the world, become the de facto online platform for communication and social interaction. In 2017, the main platform reached the milestone of two billion monthly active users (Facebook, 2017), and global user growth since then has continued, reaching 2.6 billion in April 2020 (Facebook, 2020). Moreover, in many countries Facebook has become an essential infrastructure for maintaining social relations (Fife et al., 2013), commerce (Aguilar, 2015) and political organisation (Howard and Hussain, 2013). However, recent changes in Facebook’s regulatory and user landscape stand to challenge its pre-eminent position, making its future demise if not plausible, then at least less implausible over the long-term.
Indeed, the closure of an online social network would not in itself be unprecedented. Over the last two decades, we have seen a number of social networks come and go — including Friendster, Yik Yak and, more recently, Google+ and Yahoo Groups. Others, such as MySpace, continue to languish in a state of decline. Although Facebook is arguably more resilient to the kind of user flight that brought down Friendster (Garcia et al., 2013; Seki and Nakamura, 2016; York and Turcotte, 2015) and MySpace (boyd, 2013), it is not immune to it. These precedents are important for understanding Facebook’s possible decline. Critically, they demonstrate that the closure of Facebook’s main platform does not depend on the exit of all users; Friendster, Google+ and others continued to have users when they were sold or shut down.
Furthermore, as we examine below, any user flight that precedes Facebook’s closure would probably be geographically asymmetrical, meaning that the platform remains a critical infrastructure in some (less profitable) regions, whilst becoming less critical in others. For example, whilst Friendster started to lose users rapidly in North America, its user numbers were simultaneously growing, exponentially, in South East Asia. It was eventually sold to a Filipino internet company and remained active as a popular social networking and gaming platform until 2015. The closure of Yahoo! GeoCities, the web hosting service, was similarly asymmetrical: although most sites were closed in 2009, the Japanese site (which was managed by a separate subsidiary) remained open until 2019. It is also important to note that, in several of these cases, a key reason for user flight was the greater popularity of another social network platform: namely, MySpace (Piskorski and Knoop, 2006) and Facebook (Torkjazi et al., 2009). Young, white demographics, in particular, fled MySpace to join Facebook (boyd, 2013).
These precedents suggest that changing user demographics and preferences, and competition from other social networks such as Snapchat or a new platform (discussed further below) could be key drivers of Facebook’s decline. However, given Facebook’s pre-eminence as the world’s largest social networking platform, the ethical, legal and social repercussions of its closure would have far graver consequences than these precedents. Rather, the demise of a global online communication platform such as Facebook could have catastrophic social and economic consequences for innumerable communities that rely on the platform on a daily basis (Kovach, 2018), as well as the users whose personal data Facebook collects and stores.
Despite the high stakes involved in Facebook’s demise, there is little research or public discourse addressing the legal and ethical consequences of such a scenario. The aim of this article is therefore to foster dialogue on the subject. Pursuing this goal, the article provides an overview of the main ethical and legal concerns that would arise from Facebook’s demise and sets out an agenda for future research in this area. First, we identify the headwinds buffeting Facebook, and outline the most plausible scenarios in which the company — specifically, its main platform — might close down. Second, we identify four key ethical stakeholders in Facebook’s demise based on the types of harm to which they are susceptible. We further examine how various scenarios might lead to these harms, and whether existing legal frameworks are adequate to mitigate them. Finally, we provide a set of recommendations for future research and policy intervention.
It should be noted that the legal and ethical considerations discussed in this article are by no means limited to the demise of Facebook, social media, or even “Big Tech”. In particular, to the extent that most sectors in today’s economy are already, or will soon become, data-driven and data-rich, these considerations, many of which relate to the handling of Facebook’s user data, are ultimately relevant to the failure or closure of any company handling large volumes of personal data. Likewise, as human interaction becomes increasingly mediated by social networks and Big Tech platforms, the legal and ethical considerations that we address are also relevant to the potential demise of other social networks, such as Google or Twitter. However, focusing on the demise of Facebook — one of the most data rich, social networks in today’s economy — offers a fertile case study for the analysis of these critical legal and ethical questions.
