Is Facebook the future of electronic publishing?

Why is Facebook presenting its new "choose an audience for your post" feature as having to do with privacy? No doubt FB is looking for a PR boost on this issue, and hopes this spin will provide one. But the change has much more to do with Facebook's effort to compete not just with Twitter, but also with standard blogging software, as a publishing platform. Qua pub platform, FB now has three key advantages over Twitter: it lets users write longer posts, incorporate non-text content directly, and target each post to a specific audience. It also has another, huge advantage over both Twitter and Wordpress et al: it lets users publish to a captive, receptive audience, i.e. their FB friends, rather than having to build one from scratch. Sure, FB's posting interface isn't great, and puts a limit on how long posts can be, but with a few upgrades, both these obstacles could be overcome. I look forward to seeing if FB moves in this direction, and how Twitter and blog-package makers respond - and I look forward as well to seeing who will be the first writer or editor to start pushing out fiction and/or poetry via Facebook, and if this proves to be an effective way to build a loyal readership.