Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumZuckerberg insists Facebook will be impartial toward Warren
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the company will be impartial toward Sen. Elizabeth Warrens presidential campaign despite his pledge to fight her plan to break up the company if she takes the White House.
Zuckerberg came under fire this week after audio surfaced of an open meeting during which he predicted Facebook would challenge and beat back efforts by a would-be Warren administration to split up the company.
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A staffer pressed the executive during a Thursday open meeting, which was streamed live after the earlier meeting leak made headlines, on whether Facebook could be expected to treat Warren's campaign fairly given Zuckerberg's remarks.
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Zuckerberg quipped that the company would try not to antagonize her further. But he said he understood the concern and pledged to maintain neutrality toward the Democratic candidate.
Zuckerberg stood by his leaked remarks, which he shared on Facebook after The Verge published audio and a transcript, calling them an unfiltered view into his thoughts. He said his comments on Warren were in response to a specific question and not like an opinion on the election overall.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/04/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-elizabeth-warren-027312
Hmmm. "I still want to give them a voice..." That's mighty nice of Zuckerberg.
Talk about a concentration of power and influence in a single media company, eh?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
ancianita
(36,137 posts)Or is she going to force MZ to break up FB forums topically by pets, cooking and crafts, politics or small businesses?
I don't see how he's got a monopoly. Just a communications service that exists among others, but was first-to-market, and so is the biggest, globally. People loved it back 12 years ago, and that's why it blew up.
It's communications -- a necessity for many families, faraway friends; and for small business people, just to promote their services and business, -- it's networking, ad buy for third parties; it's algorithm responses to the two. To break that up is to hurt community and local economies, imo.
She sounds tough but I'm not sure, once she looks at the structure, what kind of legislation could change it without harm to customers, or users (who are the third parties), us customers being the most vulnerable.
At least FB has a non-moderated candidate policy, and wants to encrypt end-to-end, to stop global interference in discussions. That's to his credit.
Are FB and Google so similar that her plan could apply to Google or other Silicon Valley giants? Doubtful on both counts.
Or does the REAL badbad guy, Google, get a pass. And why should it. It controls the information economy and is THE single greatest surveillance apparatus that exists.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)I believe him as much as I believe Putin when he says Trump did not do exactly what tRump did ALL DAY yesterday.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden