Baseline Comparison Entities

Meta controls all IP, all infrastructure, the algorithmic feed, user identity, and developer API access. No meaningful governance exists outside Meta's board. The platform has repeatedly restricted and reversed third-party API access unilaterally (2018 Cambridge Analytica response; 2023 API lockdowns). Fork is not viable due to network effects and the absence of any open-source components. Regulatory pressure (GDPR, EU Digital Markets Act) has shaped surface-level behavior but has not redistributed structural control.

Full Meta ownership since the 2012 acquisition ($1B). All infrastructure, feed algorithm, and data are governed entirely by Meta with no independent governance structure. The 2012 acquisition was explicitly strategic — eliminating a potential competitor — demonstrating capture as a platform development strategy rather than organic open development. No open-source components; no viable fork path given Meta's control of user identity and social graph.

Privately owned since the October 2022 acquisition; all governance, infrastructure, and roadmap decisions are made at the sole discretion of a single individual with no board oversight, no public governance process, and no community check. Post-acquisition actions — unilateral staff reductions, API monetization restrictions eliminating third-party clients, content moderation policy reversals, and algorithmic feed changes — demonstrate single-actor capture operating in practice. Mastodon / ActivityPub offer a functional decentralized equivalent, but carry a fraction of the user base, confirming near-irreversible network-effect lock-in for the foreseeable term.

Google controls all infrastructure, all data storage, and all API access. The real-time collaboration protocol is proprietary and not published as an open standard; interoperability is limited to import/export of common document formats. Service continuity is entirely at Google's discretion (cf. dozens of Google product shutdowns including Google+, Stadia, and various Workspace-adjacent tools). No community governance exists; no open-source components at the service layer. Fork is not viable without replicating the full infrastructure stack independently.

Google controls all upload infrastructure, the recommendation algorithm, content moderation policy, and monetization access. Creators have no contractual right to continued hosting or algorithm visibility. Multiple unilateral policy shifts — 2019 COPPA changes, advertiser-driven content demonetization waves, 2023 third-party ad-blocking countermeasures — demonstrate single-party operational control. Video infrastructure scale makes duplication prohibitive. Decentralized alternatives (PeerTube, Odysee) exist but carry negligible market share relative to YouTube's network effects.

Owned by Meta since the 2014 acquisition ($19B). Despite end-to-end encryption using the Signal Protocol, the service layer, user identity, account management, and infrastructure are fully controlled by Meta. The 2021 privacy policy update required users to consent to data sharing with Meta's advertising infrastructure or lose service access — a coercive use of lock-in to extract data concessions. The open-source Signal messenger offers a functionally equivalent alternative with no platform capture risk; WhatsApp's dominance is a product of network effects and distribution, not technical superiority.

Wholly owned by ByteDance, which operates under PRC jurisdiction and is subject to the 2017 PRC National Intelligence Law, creating credible state-actor capture risk independent of ByteDance's stated policies. All infrastructure, recommendation algorithm, and data governance is ByteDance's proprietary IP with no community or open-source counterweight. US and EU regulatory proceedings (potential forced divestiture; data routing restrictions) confirm that state-adjacency risk is treated as a real operational concern by governments, not a theoretical one. Fork is not viable given near-total network effects in the short-form video category. Preliminary assessment — full review of ByteDance / Oracle infrastructure arrangements pending.