> There is nothing special about Facebook products that make them harmful.

Sure, there is. Addiction. People are addicted to this stuff. They're addicted to likes, reactions, seeing their follower numbers increase. They're addicted to the algorithmic content feeds. Facebook is actively working towards keeping it that way. They probably want to make it even more addictive. They want people using their software at all times in order to collect data and serve ads.

Why else would they C&D an unfollow extension developer? They want people to keep following so they get addicted to the infinite content plus ads feed.

Also, nobody is excusing any of the other sites you mentioned. There's plenty of things wrong with them as well and we'll condemn them for it. We're just focusing on Facebook right now because it's the subject of this particular thread.

I think this discussion applies to TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit as well. Facebook (along with Instagram) is probably the worst offender at the moment, but any laws that apply to Facebook would apply to others.

> This idea that you can ban Facebook and Instagram and suddenly the internet is safe for kids is just ridiculous.

Who said that? I don't think they should be banned, but I do think they should be regulated or otherwise held accountable. A big part of it might be being more transparent with their algorithm, and giving tools to users to control it more.

I think where we are is akin to back in the days where people realized that, no, we aren't going to ban buildings, but we are going to have building codes. We aren't going to ban food, but we are going to have an FDA. Etc. The free market doesn't address all problems.