By: James Emmanuel

A senior member of the European Parliament called for splitting the services of global social media giant Facebook in an attempt to resolve the scandals surrounding the US firm. Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, made this suggestion after Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg sailed through a grilling from EU lawmakers about the social network’s data policies as lengthy questions left the 34-year-old American little time to answer.

The Member of European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium went on to suggest that Facebook’s dominance could be stifled by splitting it from Facebook messenger. Down one road he would be remembered as a pioneer who created technology for good, “like Steve Jobs”, down the other his legacy would be that of “a genius who created a digital monster,” he added.

Echoing a similar view, German MEP Manfred Weber said it was “time to discuss breaking Facebook’s monopoly”. Noting that Facebook already owned rival services like Instagram and Whatsapp, he added that it already had “too much power in one hand”.

It was up to Zuckerberg to convince him that this measure is not necessary, he said. 

Zuckerberg replied that Facebook existed “in a very competitive space where people use a lot of different tools for communication”. “From where I sit it feels like there are new competitors coming up every day … That feels like a competitive market,” added the Facebook chief.

However, when he appeared before the US Congress in April, he was unable to name a rival service offering similar functionality as his social network. Both hearings were seeking answers in the wake of the data scandal surrounding Facebook and the UK data firm Cambridge Analytica, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. 

As many as 87 million Facebook users had their personal information improperly shared with the UK-based firm. The data was then used for the purpose of political profiling during the 2016 US presidential elections and the UK’s EU referendum that same year. Facebook has more than 2.2 billion users worldwide and dwarfs any other online social network.

Beyond its core social network business, Facebook and its various subsidiaries now have direct influence over almost half of all internet traffic. The call from the MEPs to break up Facebook’s monopoly comes as advocacy groups in the US urged the Federal Trade Commission to do the same thing.