> This is because I legitimately use facebook for communication more often than I use phones. Therefore, being banned from facebook would have a larger impact on my life than being banned from ever making a phone call again..
If you use Facebook as your primary communication platform I can see how getting banned from Facebook would be very inconvenient, unfortunately, the fact that you would rely on Facebook in such a manner doesn't change the reality that Facebook is just one website, while a phone network is fundamental infrastructure that underpins internet connectivity. For the vast majority of Facebook users losing access to the phone network would mean losing access to not just Facebook, but everything on the internet. You might have grown accustomed to thinking of Facebook as something more than just a website, but that conception is simply wrong, the idea that Facebook is comparable to the network that Facebook runs on is categorically incorrect.
> e fact that you would rely on Facebook in such a manner
It is the reality of the situation that a whole lot of people rely on facebook in such a manner, and because of the network effect they would be unable to convince all of their friends and family to switch to other platforms.
One person cannot defeat platform locking and network effects.
> while a phone network is fundamental infrastructure
Not really. It would be easier for me to never call someone's phone number again, than to get rid of other communication platforms that I use.
> It is the reality of the situation that a whole lot of people rely on facebook
You're just wrong. The overwhelming majority of people use a variety of communication services like e-mail, imessage/sms and many others, and this is common knowledge, people who only use Facebook for communication are frankly extremely rare.
I am saying that they rely on it more for communication than they do on phone calls.
I communicate with people much more over Facebook than I do through actual phone calls, and it would be less of a problem to be banned from ever making phone calls again than it would be to be banned from facebook.
> I am saying that they rely on it more for communication than they do on phone calls.
Nobody is talking about phone calls and you know it. It doesn't matter that you use Facebook more than anything else, it doesn't change what Facebook actually is. If you use discord or slack to do most of your communicating that doesn't mean they become utilities, that's just your personal preference.
Literally I was the one to bring up this example in the very beginning. It was my example, that I chose at the start. So yes, that is relevant.
The fact of the matter is, that me being banned from ever making phone calls again would absolutely be a larger problem for me, and many other people, than if we were banned from using facebook.
> It doesn't matter that you use Facebook more than anything else
Of course it does. It is a point of comparison, so as to show that it would be a bigger problem to be banned from facebook than it would be to be banned from making phone calls.
> that's just your personal preference.
I can assure you that there are many people for whom it would be a bigger problem to be banned from facebook than to be banned from making phone calls.
> It was my example, that I chose at the start. So yes, that is relevant.
It's not relevant because you're ignoring the fact that "the phone network" doesn't primarily mean "phone calls" it primarily means "internet access".
> The fact of the matter is, that me being banned from ever making phone calls again would absolutely be a larger problem for me
Yes, you keep repeating that over and over again (3 times in this response) but what you don't seem to understand is that nobody is forcing you to rely exclusively on a single website for all your communications, that is a self-imposed restriction that isn't meaningful when trying to decide if a website meets the definition of a utility.
> what you don't seem to understand is that nobody is forcing you to rely exclusively on a single website for all your communications
That does not change the fact that it would be a bigger problem for me to be banned from facebook than it would be for me to be banned from making phone calls, lol.
So when you say this "nobody is forcing you", you are ignoring the fact that they would be forcing a problem on me that would be larger than if I were banned from making phone calls.
So yes. They would be forcing an issue on me that would be larger than if they banned me from making phone calls.
> ignoring the fact that "the phone network"
Phone systems have fallen under utilities laws since before the internet existed. Therefore the analogy to phone calls is relevant.
You can look at home phone line systems. A home phone lines, that gives zero internet access, still falls under utilities laws.
Are you aware that a landline, that gives zero internet access, would still have to follow utilities laws? Just want to make sure you are aware of that.
> meets the definition of a utility
A perfectly reasonable thing to do is compare it to how much a problem it would be to switch from a different utility.
A landline, that has no internet access, is a utility. It falls under utilities laws, even if the singular only thing that it does, is make phone calls, without any internet access. Phone calls, without internet, is a utility.
And switching away from the system that only allows you to make phone calls, and has no internet, and is therefore a utility, would be easier than switching away from facebook.
Sure it does. It matters regarding the justification for the law.
Yes, I understand that common carrier laws do not currently apply to facebook. But, I am saying that the law should be changed so that that do apply to them.
And the justification for this, is because we have utility laws that currently apply to things like a phone system, (even if that phone system provides no internet), and yet it is easier for me to switch from that than it is to switch from facebook.
I understand that the laws don't currently apply to facebook. But it absolutely does resemble a utility in that the problems that it pushes on people are larger than that of other utilities.
That is how it resembles it. The problems are larger than that of another similar utility.
If you use Facebook as your primary communication platform I can see how getting banned from Facebook would be very inconvenient, unfortunately, the fact that you would rely on Facebook in such a manner doesn't change the reality that Facebook is just one website, while a phone network is fundamental infrastructure that underpins internet connectivity. For the vast majority of Facebook users losing access to the phone network would mean losing access to not just Facebook, but everything on the internet. You might have grown accustomed to thinking of Facebook as something more than just a website, but that conception is simply wrong, the idea that Facebook is comparable to the network that Facebook runs on is categorically incorrect.