From Deepa Seetharaman and Emily Glazer’s “How Mark Zuckerberg Learned Politics” in Friday’s Wall Street Journal:
For more than a decade as he built Facebook Inc. into a global force, Mark Zuckerberg made it clear he didn’t care for politics. Early advisers strained to hold his attention in briefings about D.C. lawmakers, people familiar with the matter say, and he frequently said he would gladly leave the politics to others.
No longer. Mr. Zuckerberg is now an active political operator. He has dined with President Trump, talks regularly with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, and has pressed lawmakers and officials to scrutinize rivals including TikTok and Apple Inc., people involved in the discussions say…
Mr. Zuckerberg has also told government officials Apple doesn’t receive as much scrutiny as Facebook even though it owns an operating system used by a large percentage of Americans, people familiar with the discussions said.
My take: This from the man who got rich skimming profits from the QAnon-ing of American politics. (That overstates it, but still.)
Hours after the recent NYP article on Hunter Biden Facebook impeded the distribution of the story on its platform. I know some Republicans who went ballistic, and others “hoppin’ mad,” provoking strong reactions among the Republican community that the social media platform was censoring them, an outcry that bursted forth louder Wednesday when Trump’s campaign director foamingly said Kayleigh McEnany’s personal account had been locked by Facebook because she had posted the NYP article. So, if Mark Zuckerberg has a special relationship with the WH where he can sick them onto Apple while concomitantly spitting into the eyes of some of the most powerful people in the Republican Party then he is able to work miracles greater than Tim Cook has done in his special relationship with the president.
Tim Cook too, has had private dinners in the WH with the president and the president’s family along with many private meetings and public announcements promoting Apple many times, such as the trip to Austin. The president yesterday said that they will be calling for the repeal of Section 230. So, please explain how on earth has Mark Zuckerberg a special relationship with this president where Zuckerberg can curry special favors.
This story is hogwash, and it’s time to leave politics behind.
“Follow the money”. Playing both sides helps him throw off any pursuers, makes pub for him. Since Zuck barely answers to his board, it’s not surprising to me he does what he likes. He probably envies Fox News’ ratings and stature.
Throwing shade at Apple and other competitors is precisely the distraction model he’s learning from others. Soon he’ll do the same to Google in order to foster more clicks and ad revenue for FB. Meanwhile FB users are the product. IMO.
The respected old realm news sources do things like vet sources, retract errors made by reporters, and follow classical journalistic ethics. This is not poppycock, but a report that would result in significant reputational damage if it’s not really factual.
Let’s see how Mark reacts. He can sue for libel or just loudly deny it if this WSJ report is fraudulent.
(BTW, This is not a political comment.)
It also confirms an ongoing pattern of behavior by Mark Zuckerberg that includes, lying, scapegoating and political dirty tricks – to attack opponents. Sound familiar?
Why the CEO of America’s biggest social media company is going to such lengths to undermine Apple is not poppycock.
Maybe it’s payback because Apple was on the verge of including new opt-out features on the last iOS update, that would have made it harder for Facebook to gather personal user information to feed their ad business? I recall reading that Apple decided to not implement that…. yet. In other words, that was a shot across their bow.
Tim Cook has famously described Facebook’s business as making the user ‘the product’, etc, which though true, got under Zuckerberg’s skin.
Apple and Facebook don’t just have completely different business models, they have completely different philosophies.
Tim Cook engages Washington to lobby for allowing foreign engineers to work in the U.S., and not being hamstrung with China. While Zuckerberg is looking for a distraction so Facebook isn’t the only big ‘tech’ company to be scrutinized for questionable behavior.
Apple has always been a target, but not by other big American tech companies – who they don’t compete with. Zuckerberg has been and still is a bad actor, IMO.
Facebook is none of those things.
But not until I’ve had my say!”