Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram was the greatest regulatory failure of the past decade, says Stratechery’s Ben Thompson

For years, Facebook has argued that it’s a platform: An unbiased technology service for all ideas, brands, media companies and people to distribute their work. That’s not really the case, argues Ben Thompson, the founder of the influential tech newsletter Stratechery. Thompson argued that Facebook and Google, two well-known “platforms,” are actually more like aggregators, an important distinction.

He also argued that, as an aggregator, Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, which is one of the best tech acquisitions of all time, was also a massive regulatory failure. The best way to regulate an aggregator is to “limit horizontal expansion,” Thompson said. “The greatest regulatory failure of the last 10 years is Facebook being allowed to buy Instagram,” Thompson said. “They were able to expand their access in a horizontal way to more users and more time within those users themselves.”