Communications of the ACM
Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Shut Up
The hubris that Facebook is here to make the world better is the core flaw in Zuckerberg's view of himself and his company.
Mark Zuckerberg should fire his entire communications and lobbying staff. They are incompetent. They have only made matters worse for Facebook. Did no one think to brief Zuckerberg on the two or three obvious lines of questioning he would face in a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee last Wednesday?
It was an astounding moment in American corporate history. A CEO of one of the world's most powerful companies sat dumbfounded, stammering, unable to address predictable questions from U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is well known to be as prepared and relentless in her interrogations as any politician in America.
"Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal? I mean, if you're not fact-checking political advertisements, I'm just trying to understand the bounds here — what's fair game?" Ocasio-Cortez asked.
"Congresswoman, I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head, I think probably," replied Zuckerberg, trying his best to explain what has been one of the most confusing and controversial of a series of new Facebook changes this year.
Facebook's public trust is eroded by more than three years of revelations of its excesses, carelessness, and hubris. Instead, the story has been an unrelenting barrage of chaos, arrogance, panic, overreaction, defensiveness, and even the occasional act of vengeance against critics.
From Wired
View Full Article – May Require Paid Subscription
No entries found