gideon.rachman@ft.com on Facebook, the brilliance of Zuckerberg & some other vexing questions. American Writer comments

Recall Mr. Zuckerberg’s triumphant ‘Listening Tour’ ?

Headline: Mark Zuckerberg says extent of opioid crisis was biggest surprise of US tour

Sub-headline: Speaking about his 30-state tour that sparked rumors of a presidential run, the Facebook CEO added: ‘We have a responsibility to remain optimistic’

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/10/mark-zuckerberg-opioid-crisis-facebook-america-tour

During which the line of ass-kissers was long, when he lectured that the ‘Opioid Crisis’and ‘a responsibility to remain optimistic’ were his primary concerns. This in the wake of the election of Trump, in 2016, clearly demonstrates that Zuckerberg was politically out of touch and out of his league. Not to speak of his subsequent appointment of ‘Lean In’ corporate hack Sheryl Sandberg to CEO of Facebook. Here is Sandberg celebrated in the pages of Forbes in 2013:

Headline: 10 Things Sheryl Sandberg Gets Exactly Right In ‘Lean In’

https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/03/04/10-things-sheryl-sandberg-gets-exactly-right-in-lean-in/#35b80fea7ada

The headline writers/editors have gotten carried away and misrepresent Mr. Rachman’s essay, by the way of the  headline and sub-headline

Headline:Facebook is the world’s most powerful adolescent

Sub-headline: And like many teenagers, it needs to be set some rules

Mr. Rachman’s accusation:

Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was once reluctant to acknowledge the company’s political power — initially rejecting the idea that fake news on Facebook influenced the 2016 election as “crazy”. This attitude may have been naive or disingenuous, but it was certainly not sustainable.

The Guardian published this in November 2016:

Headline: Facebook’s failure: did fake news and polarized politics get Trump elected?

Sub-headline: The company is being accused of abdicating its responsibility to clamp down on fake news stories and counter the echo chamber that defined this election

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/10/facebook-fake-news-election-conspiracy-theories

All The Free Marketer’s suddenly lose their cherished faith in that ‘Market’ as the ultimate test of viability? Should the reader take the object lesson from the New York Times’ publication of the pro-war propaganda, confected by Judy Miller and Scooter Libby, as an object lesson in reliance of the standards of journalism as practiced by Corporate Media?

Or this proclamation of Zuckerberg’s ‘brilliance’ or just call him a undergrad looking for and ‘rating’ ‘hot women’!:

At 35 years old, Mr Zuckerberg has proved himself to be a brilliant engineer and businessman.

The self-proclaimed ‘Internet Geniuses‘ need to be reminded, in the starkest terms, that they owe their very existence to the U.S. Government. And its invention of the internet! That they used and use to conduct their ‘Revolution in Communication’ . And that they must compelled to follow one of the foundational freedoms of Free Speech guaranteed in the US Constitution. The corporate control of the internet has zero legitimacy, it is a Public Utility, not the playground of the aforementioned Geniuses, and their Corporatist ambitions. An Internet Bill of Rights is radical idea whose time is long overdue!

American Writer

https://www.ft.com/content/2a1adec2-f3e0-11e9-b018-3ef8794b17c6

 

 

 

 

About stephenkmacksd

Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer. 'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.' https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary
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