Our world is so reliant on social media and other technology businesses that collapse would be a disaster argues Oxford University study
It might be easy to dismiss Facebook as just a social media platform with all the good and bad that entails, but if it were to collapse, would the fallout be significant?
According to a study at Oxford University, suddenly losing access to our friends’ varying degrees of interesting status updates is the least of the issues that would be created by Facebook’s demise.
To be clear, they are not saying that a collapse of Facebook is likely but that negative conditions such as the recent advertising backlash could, theoretically, bring it down.
And the other big tech firms are equally important, according to the study that says that they are, similar to large financial institutions: “too big to fail.”
At the heart of their argument, Carl Öhman and Nikita Aggarwal cite Facebook’s position as the de facto online platform for communication and social interaction in large parts of the world.
It also connects ‘dependent communities’ and will provide future generations with important insights into cultural heritage.
But it is the data that Facebook holds that could be a significant risk to individuals with its huge depository of information potentially ending up in third party hands if Facebook were to fail.
There is also the additional risk to millions of businesses that rely on Facebook to connect to customers and drive sales. And, of course, the firm’s further push into financial services.
Strategically important
The authors of the report, published in Internet Policy Review, say that the comparison with the big banks is a valid one. While the direct financial impact would not be on the scale of a major bank collapsing, a disorderly collapse of Facebook or similar tech businesses would have a significant impact.
Öhman and Aggarwal say that designating the big tech firms as “strategically important technology institutions” or SITI would guide regulation such as the use of data, advertising, and free speech.
But Öhman says that those who would crush the might of big tech should be in favour of managing any demise carefully.
“There are plenty of people who dislike the amount of power banks have, but few would be happy to see them fail overnight, taking all their customers’ savings and financial assets with them in the fall,” he told The Guardian.
