The US Government must hold Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg accountable for all the problems that the social media site has visited upon its users, Chris Hughes, a co-founder of the company, says in an op-ed, in which he also called for the company to be broken up.

Whenever Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is faced with the prospect of losing money, he does something to distract people. This time, facing what could be a fine of as much as US$5 billion for privacy violations, Zuckerberg is flailing left and right and trying to spin things as best as possible.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has a somewhat predictable way of dealing with what looks like an approaching crisis: write an op-ed that recommends some fanciful Utopian remedy for all the world's ills — that, presumably, will also cover Facebook — and hope that it will get enough traction to prevent regulation.