They are not too bit to fail. Fail they will if users run for the door and turn to other platforms for sharing community. I have had enough of Facebook's deceptions and will cheer the day when their hubris and arrogance finally catch up with them.
9
Excellent summation of a major corporation. A textbook indictment of American capitalism. Thousands engage in whispering campaigns about what's wrong but no one acts boldly to fix anything. Why? Because investors.
7
Zuckerberg and Sandburg have had a year to react and fix things, but they have done nothing to prevent continuing problems.
Facebook has become a danger to our world and something needs to be done. In the meantime we all can limit our use or simply leave. Apparently that’s now happening in record numbers.
Frontline’s story is a must see. Shows how these executives knew the problems and ignored them. 2 of the most dangerous and evil company execs.
12
Regardless of the original intent, they are now weaponized in a deceptive way. Who needs Halloween when you got Facebook to scare you? Is Brazil one of the latest 'victims'?
9
Facebook is all Froth and Fantasy. Zuckerburg is the chief fantasist. Save the world!!!! Cure all disease by 2100!!!! Connect all people!!!!
No one else is as narcissistic, focused, and convinced of Facebook's infallibility as Mark - not even close. He is both Mr. Vision Man and Mr. Carry It Out Man. It is his personal company in a way that Apple was originally Steve Jobs' company. Steve spoke for the design and vision and even organization. But he also matured and made plans to be replaced. Mark Zuckergurg may yet grow and mature and see that he needs to put in place his replacement.
You don't displace a prophet - and that's exactly what he and his wife are - a prophet and his wife.
5
Capitalism natural evolution....!
Nonsense. Facebook's alliance with Cambridge nailed down Trump's win over what's her name. Neither the company nor its people have any actionable moral integrity. You want decency and constructive agency in the public sector, kiss off outfits like Facebook. If your life only revolves around profit and loss, hire Zuckerberg or any of the other geniuses.
5
In other words, it’s going to take the people who got us into this mess to figure out how to get us out of it.
2
Zuckerberg needs to go to save the company. He's arrogant and lacks maturity. His unwillingness to take any responsibility for the problems with how FB is run means that FB is about as successful as it ever will as a business.
6
@Jeffrey Co-workers tell me that their kids have no use for Facebook, with Snapchat being their preferred way of communicating.
Maybe good old evolution will take care of the problem.
3
He has fortified himself by assuring from the beginning that his voting rights would out vote anyone else in any shareholder meeting. The board knows if they trie a move against him, he would have them removed.
In every other case, you present as an example, they didn’t have enough voting rights to solely fire their boards in a shareholders meeting.
He is invulnerable so why anyone would bother to ask for him to be removed. He is the only one that can make himself step down when he wants and how he wants.
2
I think it's become glaringly apparent that the Executive Team at Facebook lie and lie and lie some more until they're caught and are forced to admit to some sin, and then immediately return to lying as their default position.
9
Any reasonably self-aware individual could see the writing on the wall about FB years ago. I did, deleted my account, and have never had the slightest regret.
Facebook can indeed fail. It only takes people to vote for it by deleting their accounts.
10
I think this is really only a story for tech journalists and the Never-Facebookers. For the 2+ billion people who use Facebook and are delighted by its multitude of services, the occasional mishap or, more often, the unforeseen consequence of a brand new technology platform created by tens of thousands of compartmentalized specialists is to be expected.
2
My 15 year old says that Facebook is for old people and I think Zuckerberg should be very, very afraid of her.
6
@Steve S My word, so should the advertising industry! :-)
1
Facebook is the face of the evil in the 21st century, not because the company or its leadership are innately evil, but because it's the perfect projector of our shadow side and in our hands Facebook has become powerfully destabilizing and pernicious to the continued health of the republic of the United States. Close your account today before Facebook's algorithmic amplification of division, mistrust, conspiracy theories, and outright hatred rend the remaining threads of our social fabric and lead to a broader outbreak of tribal violence where neighbor rises up against neighbor with no hope of reconciliation.
2
@Jack I love the idea of doing that, but what can those of us without immediately proximate social circles do to fill that void? Yes, going out into the community is the most healthy alternative but, sadly, as a nation we're not the best at change or opening up. Modern Americans love their electronic isolation - witness rows of glowing laptops at any coffee house with their users seemingly hypnotized (or maybe at work).
Before there were social media, there were forwarded e-mails. Americans have, largely, become too comfy with the convenience social media like Facebook provides - everyone is in one place. No shuffling around for e-mail addresses, just tap a name. And what other social media platform could upend Facebook? The last credible challenger was one called Ello and it had traction for a while until Facebook fixed the complaint that led users to defect to it. You can Google Ello if you want the full story.
I think social media have a place, but platforms like Facebook have exploited the worst of tech and the worst of human nature. I'm sitting alone in a coffee house right now, tapping this out on my smartphone. Plenty of Facebook contacts but alone I sit, like on many other what I call "social gap" nights.
What can guys like me hope for if Facebook falls?
One issue with Facebook is its size and ubiquity. The historical antecedents are two other giants, the Standard Oil Company and the Bell System, both of which were broken up. For whatever reason, America does not like Goliaths and will ready five smooth stones to fling at him. I think this could be Facebook’s fate.
Another issue with the company is that its users are not its customers. If people actually had to pay a monthly fee, I think the Facebook long ago would have addressed and fixed the many issues that now beset it.
1
Hey, MANY ppl think Zuckerberg should step down. He is myopic, seeing nothing but his "creation," his "baby." That's what it has always been and that is at the core of his leadership. He never really matured, and has very little understanding or compassion. FB has become in essence a utility, and a monopoly, and must be taken out of private hands or at the very least, heavily regulated.
2
Why should we be impressed by Facebook's hiring Nick Clegg? He was the same leader of the Liberal Democrats who enabled David Cameron to carry out an agenda that strongly contradicted the Liberal Democrats' campaigning position, while in coalition with the Tories. There's an appearance of Mr. Clegg's being hired precisely because he's seen as compliant.
1
Hmm, he became too big to fail after failing for years. Just like financial institutions in the aughts. Will we ever learn?
3
Criminal indictment and incarceration for callous attitude and lackadaisical management is in order. For both, Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg. The Facebooo ecosystem is enabling atrocities and self harm. They know it is. Time to shut it down.
4
"Either Mr. Zuckerberg fixes Facebook, or no one does. That’s the choice we face, like it or not."
What nonsense. Regulation could fix the most egregious problems related to security and privacy. Meaningful fines would also catch the attention of shareholders.
8
MZ always comes off as a nerdy college kid wearing the uniform of blue jeans and plain t-shirt/hoodie. He seemingly always falls back upon his humble dorm room beginnings and claims an oh so innocent facade. He needs to be cut off at the knees. Way too much power and money for one individual to possess. The evil unleashed from his corporation is just being recognized.
Time for some regulation(s). Implied ignorance is not an excuse. He knows what's going on.
5
@MS It is so far from being fully recognized. Facebook has shaped many many aspects of the way we communicate, how we socialize. It has greatly influenced our limiting the face to face time we spend with each other and now chat and LIKE on Facebook. Facebook really is the emperor's new clothes, yet no one is looking at the larger societal impact at all. The stuff they have been stirring up? Its only a smokescreen meant to distract.
1
"That’s the choice we face, like it or not." No - the choice we have is to use Facebook and suffer its arrogance, naivete, and duplicity, or to not use it.
Don't use it. It's that simple.
11
Oh, give me a break...no one is too big too fail! And everyone is irreplaceable...from Mark Zuckerberg to Donald Trump. Share holders, employees past and present, are speaking with their pocketbooks. Their idol and they are all about money and greed..period.
As far as I am concerned, both Mark Z and his creation have lost their way. In the last two years they have reaped more havoc than good. Mr. Zuckerberg double speaks. His words mask his hypocrisy and ability to manipulate the masses. He is a man that has become the epitome of the phrase, “Too much, too soon.”
12
Facebook's business model is to sell your personal information, and that of your Facebook friends, to other companies, period. It has sold the information of "friends" without their permission, so even if you deleted your account, your information could still be sold and re-sold if you were the contact of a "friend" with a Facebook account. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/03/techno
logy/facebook-device-partners-users-friends-data.html.
The EU has done a much better job of regulating tech companies to provide basic standards of privacy. Zuckerberg has done a brilliant job of harvesting and selling user data without any meaningful regulation from the US government; why should he step down? It's naïve to think that these companies will respect people's privacy without being regulated to do so.
6
No company is too big to fail...
3
Zuckerberg is not too big to fail - he’s failed miserably in many ways. He may be too big to suffer the consequences of failure.
6
Facebook solely relies on its users. If we are to change Facebook for the better, then we must vote with our data. There needs to be a campaign to educate users on how to provide less of their data to the social network. Only then we'll see how big Mr. Zuckerberg is. If the numbers start to fall significantly, he wouldn't stand a chance.
5
John Sculley fired Steve Jobs in 1985 because a) the Mac was a loser. June 1985 Mac shipments were only 16 thousand units.
and b) while Sculley was heading for SFO for a China trip, he got a call telling him that Jobs was trying to get Apples board to fire Sculley.
Steve left and built NeXt into a technically successful company.
Today's Mac OS is a revamped version of NeXt Step.
1
Zuckerberg might or might not be too big to fail, but Facebook certainly is. Their massive market power permits them to destroy or buy out all of their competitors. They are doing considerable harm to their users and irreparable harm to our democracy. Such outcomes tell us they are a natural monopoly. They have all of the power of a utility but none of the requisite regulation. We have not had so little regulation since the 1920s. Please regulate Facebook now.
5
@Robert
Facebook could disapear tomorrow and what would happen?
Someone would pick up the pieces and wonder what all the fuss was about.
1
Kudos to Mark; he created Facebook and he had the smarts to protect his control over the company as long as possible. Any smart entrepreneur would love to do the same and only give up control when they feel good and ready to move on in life.
The inanity of this and almost all such similar 'thought pieces' is that they begun with a dubious unstated premise. In this case, that premise is that Facebook has in fact made a valuable contribution to society or human welfare. It hasn't. It's effect is much more reasonably likened to that of heroin or cocaine than to that of the community center or Y. Of course this fact is obscure to the addicted; give it five more years.
7
@richard I disagree. For better or for worse, Facebook has facilitated open discussions of a historical nature never before witnessed in public - about racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other social ills. It has also allowed allies against such bigotries to find each other and their collective voice. Yes, many such discussions were painful, ugly, even hateful, but for many of the oppressed, Facebook allowed issues near to them to see the light of day on a high profile stage.
1
"Mr. Zuckerberg, thanks to his own drive and brilliance, has become one of the most powerful unelected people in the world."
If Mr. Zuckerberg is so brilliant, why doesn't he fix Facebook? He has no intention of fixing something that makes him that much money.
18
The corporate CEO of a company allows his users personal information to be stolen, not once, but on multiple occasions. This same CEO uses his technology to violate the privacy of users by capturing their contacts lists, browsing history, and even cell phone location data, to further his efforts to put more money in his pockets. This same CEO sends staff to the Philippines to assist the campaign of a fascist and trains his staff to use Facebook to go after political rivals and dissidents. This same CEO allowed foreign operatives to use his platform to spread disinformation. This same CEO allows the WhatsApp platform to be used to spread rumors, innuendos, fear in foreign countries that result in riots and death.
And yet Zuckerberg walks obliviously through his day believing his moniker "rock star" is appropriate.
The only way to remove the smugness from his face is to force his company into a regulatory morass that punishes the company for it's repeated failures to protect people and their privacy. Meanwhile, the rest of us should quickly realize that Facebook is a threat to not only our privacy but our political system and the quicker we dump Facebook, the freer we will become.
9
Mr. Zuckerberg is very bright but not overly wise.
Yet he has been given the power of the Guardians
in Plato's Republic without the years of training and
testing to ensure he always chooses what is best
for the citizens.
In any other company Mark would have been given
a gold watch, golden parachute and sent on his way.
But the under 40 crowd are enamoured of themselves,
like no other generation, and so they will have to learn
the hard way that wisdom only arises via suffering and
humbleness.
9
Why would you want him to? His genius has built a massive network of support for so many of us, especially those who are single, alone, “orphaned elders!” We get so much comfort and connection! It has also made a major difference to my career. My work is much more visible, I see more opportunities to present my work. It isn’t hidden any more! It used to be that only a few “star” academics, got their work out, but now, almost all of us have an opportunity to showcase what we do! It is a phenomenal development! And, in any moment of despair, or depression it is my drug of choice! Together with the iPhone, it has made a tremendous difference to lives. People just need some critical thinking to use it judiciously! So yes, dark conspiracies are spread, but one just needs to be taught, or learn to sift the grain from the chaff! It has also brought back moral accountability as we see from #MeToo! And it doesn’t cost users a dime! Give thanks for Mark and Facebook!
2
Watch the PBS two part documentary about Facebook. Very scary.
3
I do not use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - any social media. But this article is completely wrong headed in my view.
Oil exploration and use is responsible for global warming. But eliminating Exxon does not solve the problem.
Similarly, social media is responsible for the systematic changes in how we interact, vote, and consume/make news but removing Zuckerberg does not solve the problem..
The fundamentals of social media as non-subscription platform un-accountable for its content is supported by our laws, constitution, and customs.
Change has to come through democracy. Europe is heading the right direction with privacy laws for example but has a long way to go. The American democracy has not even began to address the problem or perhaps denies the existence of it.
It s clear to me that the current fundamentals of free speech, accountability for speech, and privacy will need change to address the problems of social media. How I do not know.
4
Dear Mark Zuckerberg,
Your efforts that’ve been (mostly) positive for humanity: You helped create a virtual platform that helps connect people around the world.
Your efforts that’ve proven to be damaging to the US and to our planet as a whole:
1. Facebook has allowed the rampant spread of disinformation, hate & politically-motivated trolling by Russian & other operatives across the globe. Your company- that you control unequivocally (as per this article)- has allowed the spread of hate & falsehoods to reach levels previously unimaginable.
2. Dictators around the world have a shiny new tool to help them win elections & spread lies.
3. Facebook helped elect a man who is grossly under-qualified to the most powerful job on the planet.
Earth is suffering. The US is out of the Paris Climate Agreement. The Supreme Court is a partisan disaster. White Nationalists, science-deniers & violence-promoters all now have a megaphone from which to spew toxicity & fear.
The volcano of partisan hate between conservatives & liberals in the US has started to erupt and has never- in my lifetime- been more toxic.
Mark, Facebook is not solely responsible for all of this. Yet, we all now know that it did have a significant role. You’ve got your Hawaiian islands & your name is all over everything in San Francisco & elsewhere. You’re rich. You’re powerful. You’re famous. We got it. But the planet is in crisis & FB needs to fix its mess. Fix it now.
Or please step down.
14
Shocker that nobody in the hand picked board of directors that decides on each other's raises at a bunch of different companies doesn't want to excommunicate one of their own.
1
"How Mark Zuckerberg Became Too Big to Fail" What a silly headline! If Zuckerberg dropped dead today, the world would be just fine. If Facebook became a mass of 404 errors - no biggie. The internet was way better before social media fly traps dominated the scene. The monetization of people's culled narratives and narcesistic tendencies is really not that important and has shown to have very negative consequences.
12
Several commenters have suggested closing your Facebook account. What the Frontline series exposed, however, is that Facebook has your data whether you have an account or not. Facebook has turned the internet into a swamp full of alligators and poisonous snakes. The only way to avoid it is to never turn on an electronic device.
7
@Susan Piper: From the same Frontline essay: "We're not a media company, we're a technology company." -Zuck (@ some glad-hand event) The responsibility is his from the beginning.
You, dear boy, are alone. The company you made is a media company by default. "Social Technology?" While it is still possble, I don't think you are it. Brilliant? My foot.
After watching the 2 part Frontline series. I agree Facebook is no different than the radio stations that incited violence in Rwanda. No regulation and they could say what they like. I also agree with the article that the business plan is the problem. They make money by selling the data. This is Sheryl's issue since she monetized Facebook and also Mark who accepted it. Ignorance is not a defense. If any other company had these problems they would be forced to slow or stop growth, think drug companies. These are incredibly wealthy and powerful people they should be held accountable.
5
Television since WWII has existed to sell ads for corporations' goods and services. Ratings have been used to fix prices for those ads, and when certain shows stopped selling sufficient amounts of TV dinners and toilet paper, those shows were cancelled. Every form of ad based media follows this model with the misty exception of the hard fact news organizations that still survive on ad revenue.
Facebook is nothing without it's ads, and you can look at the number of its employees saturated by work in that organization related to advertising as proof: unimaginable algorithm creation for data collection about users, sales teams acquiring ad buyers, webpage coders making ads appear in front of eyeballs, and now the security teams working to manage it all. What else is there for Facebook to do? Not much, because pasting all the data we enter to the website is our work, they just take it all in for ad sales so corporations who provide us all of our goods and services can convince us to buy from them.
As people cut the cord to their tv's the eyeballs are not getting ripped out, they are gazing at something else, and it's Facebook. Everything we need in life comes from corporations and we learn what we need from Facebook instead of figuring it out ourselves some other way. If advertising on Facebook didn't work we'd be sorting out what to buy next by some other process, and it is precisely because we are led by the nose so easily by ads that Facebook is nothing without them.
2
Short answer? No. He has already failed, he and his corporation just don't know it yet. When will the door open and he leave?--that is the only question. The site is buggy, its still open to widespread manipulation, identity theft and abuse. Its main impact has been very negative in terms of national--even international--political discourse. The revenue stream is iffy, and the stock price is very vulnerable to collapse. Likr many others I abandoned the platform after they allowed personal data to be used for nefarious purposes by a phony research entitity for cash. As for the man himslef? Unlike other wealthy philanthropists--Buffet or Gates--his ideas about doing good things in the world with his wealth seem rather cramped by a mind mainly interest in accumulation, not distribution.
2
I helped manage a small business and decided to try FB's advertising platform for a somewhat limited campaign. After several days of trying to figure out the platform and system, I wanted to tear my hair out. It was unbelievable how complicated it was to place a simple ad that would run for a week in our local area. The results showed the campaign to be a complete waste of money. It was then I realized the scam: FB cares only about troll farms willing to dump endless dollars and click bait into its machine, which in turn rocket-fuels the company's data collection and resale. As more people realize what a sewer FB has become, I don't see much of a future and that is a-ok by me.
11
I don't think Mark is the problem. I think the platform simply gave the ugly side of humanity a way to be more visible to more people. As to the idea that only Mark can handle Facebook, the reality is that he can not. it honestly has grown past him.
2
@Kathy Every planet-sized ego is the problem. Always.
2
Amazing how the press was captivated and enthralled by the Obama team manipulating Facebook in the 2012 campaign. Now, "the Russians" are much more dangerous for lesser actions in the 2016. In fact, have we had a serious analysis of what they supposedly did, or is it all rumors, referred to as in this article? Be that as it may, Facebook has lined up in support of one political party. When it is declared a utility and becomes much more regulated, perhaps Facebook management will realize the error of their ways. In the meantime, we can all take solace in our ability to recognize what self centered jerks people like Zuckerberg, Sandberg, Bezos, Brinn and others are. But the press (including the Times) sure love our oligarchs!
1
You vastly underestimate how loathed Mr Zuckerberg is among those with operating brains.
27
No one is too big to fail.
Just ask Roger Ailes, Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer and all the other supposed "powerful" men who have been dethroned.
Mark Zuckerberg lied coming out of the gate on facebook. He promised people's data would be kept private. He had no intention of keeping it private but, as he said, "take any action you want and apologize later".
That's what they teach at "elite" boys' schools and "elite' universities like Harvard and Yale who feed Wall Street, corporations and OUR government. That's not what they teach average young people in average institutions of learning at all levels.
WE THE PEOPLE can bring Mark Zuckerberg down by refusing to use his privacy-stealing company.
NOW is the time.
13
@njglea
Insert eye-roll here.
1
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 - 1822
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
19
@Woman Then, Ozzie was the man while he ruled.
There is a reason I never opened a Facebook account when invited to join, back in the day. It was evident from the beginning that Securify was not one of Zuckerberg’s concerns, which continues to be true to this day. He/they would inevitably overreach to the detriment of their customers and only backtrack once exposed. Again, still true.
7
Please, if you haven't already, watch the Frontline Documentary Facebook Dilemma Part 1 and 2 that aired just this week.
It is a chilling walk through about just how naive the company is in regards to it's impact in the world, and also how little regard they have about your privacy.
We can't all just blame facebook though, humans are so easily manipulated and coerced by social interactions that FB is merely exploiting our inherent weakness as a species. But I think we can blame them for not doing enough to weed out intended manipulation by organizations in order to create harm.
Sadly, the technology is so embedded into our daily lives that we just need to be aware of the manipulation and educate ourselves against it.
11
@maxwellimus. I watched those episodes, too, and came away thinking Zuckerberg is either hopelessly naive or completely without conscience. He may be a tech genius, but he didn’t seem particularly intelligent in the social and political spheres. His public utterances seemed inarticulate and canned. He has been making promises about Facebook’s dedication to privacy for years, but his exploitation of users’ data has continued and accelerated. He seems completely unaware of the damage his idealistic creation has done to society. You can’t create unity or community with a platform that divides people.
4
Facebook is a monopoly. The FCC should break it up into its component parts: advertising company, news agency, & Communication network. These components must be separated so then personal information isn’t exploited for advertising and fake news. They will have to change their economic model and charge fees of some sort.
2
Facebook must change their format or Zuckerberg will continue to have problems with his creation. The audience apparently is smarter and more fluid in their uses of this platform than the owner. He cannot figure out how to make his social media problem a plus rather than a negative.
1
Zuckerberg should run a highly regulated and downsized public utility version of Facebook, call it brobook and charge a small fee.
2
What a breath of fresh air that would be in this tech soaked, brain deadening culture of ours. Get rid of Zuckerberg, down goes Facebook. Could we be so lucky? Oh, happy day!
2
Don't care, I deleted my account.
@Ryan, you should care. FB is causing damage to civility in this country and that is a problem that affects all of us, including people (like me) who never had a FB account.
4
Monday and Tuesday night last -- PBS Frontline -- Facebook* The latter show, I found, was more interesting than the first. Does Facebook apologize or take responsibility for the messes they make? No, sir.
+++++
* I watched the Tuesday show on PBS. I found the Monday show (I missed) on Youtube.
4
Zuckerberg, the tech wiz man-boy running a half-trillion dollar company, can certainly devise the algorithms needed to weed out trolls, bots, abusers, sham advertisers and profiles, and the actual lies that constitute the fake news, but he just doesn't want to admit his company's profits depend on the sludge passing through his servers. When will Zuckerberg, Dorsey and the other greedy tech pirates using EPS as the latest example of bro manhood, fess up and —within the First Amendment — clean up their sites?
12
Only a fool would still have an account with data-harvesting, privacy-stealing Facebook. The market cap today of this "company" is approximately $433 billion, which means it is overvalued by approximately $433 billion.
4
This appears to be an article about how some people don't think something. NYT, the world doesn't need more clickbait.
Facebook isn’t “tech,” in the same way that the New York Times isn’t “tech.” Facebook is an advertising company. Its customers aren’t the hundreds of millions of “users” who create content that the company mines. Its true customers are the businesses that pay good money for all of that user data.
Lumping Facebook in with companies that actually make products and sell them to end users does those other companies a disservice.
5
No one is too big to fail. Facebook is a failed concept, it simply was a money making endeavor. And I underline simply. Zuckerberg has no depth Delete your FB account now. Close them down.
8
@Zane Your Facebook page and info will live on in perpetuity regardless of deleting. They own your data regardless of their legal jargon. Don't contribute more content or even log on though. Ever.
2
Zuckerberg's appearance and testimony before the Senate was a superficial show where he promised to answer questions 'later' or research matters that then never were answered. He and his cohort built FB as they went - it wasn't architected to do anything but grab personal details that would result in ad -clicks & make money. This isn't was software engineering should be but now FB can't be rebuilt/reconstructed. Recent articles have made fun of Elon Musk but I'd take him over Zuckerberg any day, because at least he's shown he does think ahead.
6
Because Zuckerberg seems to be short on any thoughts on ethics or principles, this is why the business model is so lacking. Money has become the God in this country, and it will ultimately lead to its further downfall.
11
In other industries, regulators step in and limit the activities a company can undertake. Not so in Tech.
In banking: regulators require that a bank not be allowed to make further acquisitions or grow in assets until they’ve satisfied the regulators’ concerns. They are required to hire management and board members that address gaps in their knowledge, skills, and experience. They are required to boost their equity capital to withstand future shocks.
In Tech: there is no regulatory oversight. Facebook has acquired Instagram, WhatsApp and others. They are growing a marketplace that will directly compete with EBay.
That is Zuckerberg’s strategy: to be so big and integral to people’s lives that everyone shrugs their shoulders and moves on.
I don’t know why people can’t stay off Facebook. I shut down my account (with a lot of difficulty in being able to: they make it harder for you to exit and keep you hibernating instead so you can go back...).
But, this is what happens when you have zero regulation. You have the Wild West. You have too big to fail.
Why shouldn’t Facebook (and Tech) be regulated? They are a national security risk with a foreign country installing their own puppet if they so want by interfering in our elections. What can be a greater threat than using it for genocide?
15
Come now Facebook could fail over time and be replaced by something better and nobody would really care that much. Nothing is "too big to fail" according to me. If they fail then we adapt.
2
Zuckerberg brings no unique or indispensable capabilities or character traits to the table. He is the quintessential person in the right place at the right time — an accidental success — and has little in common with visionary entrepreneurs (Jobs, Gates, Wolfram, Musk) who created and shaped the environment in which they flourished. Indeed, the recent two-part Frontline series portrays him as in over his head. It also singles out Ms. Sandberg as the callous, calculating brain behind the scheme to massively monetize Facebook’s data trove through its agreements with other data collectors, advertisers, and just about anyone who comes along.
13
Everyone wants to complain but no one has to participate. Don’t own the stock and don’t use the product.
Using/owning FB provides benefits. In return, users and equity owners take risks.
So— how about this:
1. If you don’t like the risks, or think them larger than the benefits, don’t use it or own it?
2. How about you only make the decision for yourself. You don’t make the decision for me or anybody else?
For me, this is part and parcel of wanting to control others — wanting to control others is terrible in a marriage context, terrible in a choice context, and (also) terrible here.
10
@Aaron Klein, using/owning FB enables continued operation of a platform that has been used by bots, trolls, and extremists to damage society. We all suffer from the toxic stew that has been created in large part by FB's unwillingness to implement serious controls over content. I've never owned or used FB, but opting out is not enough to avoid the damage. It is now obvious that FB's problems are precisely due to the fact that it can be used to control and influence others and is supported by a business model that encourages that kind of use. This company is driven by greed and has no credible plans to solve the problems of fake news, fear-mongering or promotion of violence on its platform, and that is hurting all of us, not just the ones who own or use FB. Indeed those who own or use FB are the problem. It should be shut down.
7
<<< Facebook’s problems have not reached the level of lawlessness we saw at Uber. >>>
Ummm, excuse me but Uber did not take money from Russian and Macedonian troll farms. Neither did it actively participate in election meddling by having its services used.
Zuckerberg is laser-focused on earning his billions of dollars, democracy be damned. He knew about the misleading ads paid for by Russia and ran them anyway.
And when he got caught? First he denied it. Then denied it some more. Then denied it some more this time with the righteous anger only billionaires can put on. Then when the evidence started to come out, he hired a PR company. And then when Congress had a hearing, his first move was to wear a suit, not to promise change in facebook.
Just last week, Wired magazine placed misleading ads in facebook as an experiment whether they will be flagged or filtered.
Facebook ran them all and accepted the ad placement money.
To Zuckerberg, it’s all about the money.
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The problem with Facebook can be easily resolved. Shut down your account. If you want to contact friends and family, pick up the phone and call them. Or email them. It's not rocket science.
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@susan
Good advice.
And an earlier NYTimes article shows how to shut down your Facebook account:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/technology/personaltech/how-to-delete-facebook-instagram-account.html
2
Mark had 3 big ideas.
He is not the smartest guy in the room.
Why don't these very rich people get a life.
I quit FB the day after the last election, it was obvious what had happened.
What 'good' has he ever done?
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Too big to fail? The online world is fickle and as newer platforms that offer decentralized control of ones data come online FB will have to switch or die.
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Of all the ludicrous reasons for keeping Zuckerberg on, the one unsaid is "The captain should go down with his ship." We'd all be better off if Facebook sinks, but I know, wishful thinking.
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It's absurd to suggest that Zuckerberg is irreplaceable. Zuckerberg was a 20 year old student with a good idea; one that took off because it launched at the right time and place. If it had not been him, someone else would have stumbled into the convergence of the net and our social lives. Assigning magical powers to a man who has overseen the debacle that is facebook speaks to the same mindlessness that's allowed him to operate so badly and so long in the first place.
Zuckerberg now admits he, "Didn't see it coming." Is this tiny dose of humble pie supposed to make us feel better about losing our privacy and having our credit, our savings and lives ruined? Failure is failure. Facebook is Zuckerberg's. If he was half as smart as he'd like us to think, he'd take his exit and let someone with the necessary wisdom, insight and great judgment - character traits he sorely lacks - take his seat at the table.
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It was amusing watching all the Facebook apologists beating around the bush in the Frontline piece. Their actual business model is highly successful and they won't change it unless forced. It was so clear that Facebook's Social Good Works division head didn't really believe a word she was saying...
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I found all their sanctioned corporate shills nauseating — silky, canned, fake-empathetic, evasive. To a man and woman, up to and including Zuckerberg and Sandburg, they reminded me of the very worst of amoral corporate America mouthing corporate doublespeak. No conscience, no incentive to really change, just interested enough to massage their PR. They continue to take no responsibility for how they are used. If a transport company was found to be delivering poison, wouldn’t that company want to stop? And wouldn’t they be liable, and face being regulated, if they didn’t?
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We Americans can be awfully naive when it comes to wealth and success.
Mark Zuckerberg is indeed a genius...with technology. Why did we assume because he created Facebook that he possessed the necessary skills, emotional experience, and maturity to manage a multi-billion dollar company responsible for the protection of the personal information of billions of people around the globe?
It is well-documented by reputable authors and journalists that the single most significant dysfunction of both Mark Zuckerberg and the late Steve Jobs is/was...interpersonal relationships.
And indeed, both men created "inventions" that use technology to bypass genuine, person-to-person connection. The creation never falls far from the creator.
Think about where we are now...and how this relates to how we got here.
The more critical question is why we didn't see the full picture of the risks in the over-use of these technologies and why we entrusted our personal information to Facebook?
The answer? Because we were...following. (Incidentally, that is the answer to most of our challenges right now in this country.)
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@Kelly Grace Smith But he does not need any of that, he needs to find a team to do the work that is needed, and to understand he needs them.
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@Kelly Grace Smith -- Brillant assessment.
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Like a lot of people you throw around the word genius. Zucker is nothing of the sort. Unless you consider a conniving thief a genius.
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A chilling expose type report was on Frontline the other night in which the many mistakes of facebook executives were revealed by the management of Facebook and Zuckerberg. It left me feeling that they do not know what they are doing and it has gotten out of their capacity to fix anything. They are powerful and have misused that power and failed the consumer.
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Well done analysis and evidence-based opinion. Thank you. I am not much of a Facebook user, but I do post from time to time when I read something I'd like to share. And FB is a part of the social media for the organization where I work. But after watching the Frontline special Monday and Tuesday, I have a better understanding of the Facebook dilemma and why I try to stay away. I like the idea of the online social connection, but in the current environment, the dangers outweigh the benefits for me.
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No one person is indispensable to a company (see Apple), but if Zuckerberg truly is then he, his senior team, and the board have failed to ensure the continuity of the operations in the event something should happen to him.
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