Facebook's dominance is not an accident of history. The company's strategy was to beat every competitor in plain view, and regulators and the government tacitly — and at times explicitly — approved. In one of the government's few attempts to rein in the company, the F.T.C. in 2011 issued a consent decree that Facebook not share any private information beyond what users already agreed to. Facebook largely ignored the decree. Last month, the day after the company predicted in an earnings call that it would need to pay up t o $5 billion as a penalty for its negligence — a slap on the wrist — Facebook's shares surged 7 percent, adding $30 billion to its value, six times the size of the fine.