In November 2010, I wrote an op-ed for CorpCounsel.com hypothesizing that Facebook, Google and RIM were more like virtual countries than they were global corporations, capable of exercising powers common to sovereign nations and not private industry.

Facebook, with a citizen population of over 500 million, is now the third largest nation in the world behind China and India. Google’s knowledge base, accessible at lightning speed, is larger than anything maintained by any government in history. RIM’s Blackberry continues to be the communication choice for international commerce.