Facebook Down, EU Commission Proposes Competition For New Messaging Platforms Should Be Tougher

The head of EU antitrust, Margrethe Vestager, called for more intense competition on messaging platforms. (photo; twitter)

JAKARTA – Facebook's six-hour blackout on Monday, October 4 shows how much impact it can have on just a few big players in messaging platforms and apps. The case also underscores the need for more competition, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said on Tuesday, October 5.

The outage left 3.5 billion users of the platform failing to access social media and its messaging services such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. This is the largest outage ever tracked by web monitoring group Downdetector.

#facebookdown tells 2 things :

1/ we need alternatives & choices in the #tech market, and must not rely on a few big players, whoever they are => that's the aim of #DMA

2/ that sometimes, there’s nothing better than talking to each other… just on the phone or … offline😊

— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) October 5, 2021

The outage has seen many users turn to competing apps like Twitter, Telegram, and TikTok on Monday, October 4. Several Facebook employees who declined to be named told Reuters they believed the outage was caused by an internal error in how internet traffic was routed to its systems.

"The incident shows the need for more competition," Vestager said on Twitter.

"We need alternatives and options in the tech market, and shouldn't rely on a few big players, whoever they are, that's what DMA is for," she tweeted.

Vestager last year proposed a draft rule known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that establishes a to-do list for Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google that would essentially force them to change their core business model to allow for more competition.

EU lawmakers and EU states are now debating their own proposals and need to reconcile the three drafts before the technology rules take effect.

In Indonesia, the same understanding should emerge. The government should think about or look for alternative ways if Whatsapp fails to work properly. The government must be able to encourage native Indonesian messaging applications and platforms to grow and develop.

Apart from being an alternative, this application is also a flagship for the digital world of Indonesia in the eyes of the international community.