Needless to say or state that prior to Cambridge’s’ Analytical story breaking, Facebook’s acknowledgement that its platform had been used to help incite ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, WhatsApp executions in India and the conspiracy theories and the Proud Boys, Mark Zuckerberg had the world at his feet and much more that he in 2017 chose to tour America.
In a Facebook post, he said he wished to “talk to more people about how they’re living, working and thinking about the future”. His intentions were to interact with people from all 50 states and real day to day Americans. It was seen by some as the start of a possible 2020 presidential bid – something he always denied. Some saw it as 2020 presidential bid on the cards – a rumor that he continuously denied. His candidacy was a very argumentative debate amongst the press, of course he had the money and power hand in hand.
This week, Joe Biden took the job that many believe Mark Zuckerberg secretly craves, or at least craved. And in doing so, he completed a reverse metamorphosis for Zuckerberg. A butterfly no longer, he finds himself alienated politically.
The week of 20th January 2021 witnessed Joe Biden take up the job that Mark Zuckerberg silently longed for or longs for. In doing so, he has now overturned a complete transformation for Zuckerberg which now leaves him isolated politically. “He’s not a welcome figure at the cocktail party any more. And I don’t think he has been for a long time,” says Sarah Miller, director of the American Economic Liberties Project. She also happens to be on Joe Biden’s transition team. “There is not a lot of love lost there,” she told me. “Facebook is broadly seen as the most prominent villain, among all the tech monopolists.”
It is said that the Obama administration was regarded as being close with Silicon Valley and Facebook. In the event Joe Biden was ever an ally, not any more. In fact, the president often uses Facebook as a byword for the ills of a free internet gone wrong.
Talking to the New York Times a year ago he said: “I’ve never been a fan of Facebook, as you probably know. I’ve never been a big Zuckerberg fan. I think he’s a real problem. “It’s not just Biden. In the days after Biden’s election victory, his deputy head of communications, Bill Russo, tweeted: “If you thought disinformation on Facebook was a problem during our election, just wait until you see how it is shredding the fabric of our democracy in the days after.”
It has been clear that the use of the Cambridge Analytical by the Republicans to micro-target voters was a huge factor in the Trump Victory in 2016. For this, Facebook has been held accountable for by the Democrats. The worry now is about settling old scores.
If this was the case, then the interactions are far more harmful than before. Since then, Democrats which include Biden are shocked at what is permissible on Facebooks platform.
Talking to a CNN anchor in late 2019 Joe Biden said: “You can’t do what they can do on Facebook, and say anything at all, and not acknowledge when you know something is fundamentally not true. I just think it’s all out of hand.”
Devastating for Facebook
In the eyes of a billionaire, how you are perceived and liked by the President or not is of no consequence. It is now the time for President Biden to reorganize the Big Tech and streamline the rapport between that social media companies and their users. That could be devastating for Facebook. The idea of annulling Section 230 would be the most apparent problem.
Section 230 is a very minute section of the legislation that prevents companies like Facebook being sued for information posted by the public. Joe Biden wants it removed and in fact a year ago, when Biden was interviews by the New York Times he made the same statement by saying “revoked immediately”. If this becomes a reality, Zuckerberg is in dire and out of the blue everything posted, defamatory and deceitful posts would be the responsibility of Facebook. It would be interesting to see how Facebook could function the way they are without Section 230.
His is even prior to us getting onto the anti-trust problems with Facebook. Currently FB is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 46 states for “illegally maintaining its monopoly and position” by way of buying up the competition.
The FTC has also said it’s looking at “unwinding Facebook’s prior acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp” – i.e breaking the firm up. Facebook will for sure fight it, but Biden seems keen to assist those who care to split the Big Tech.
In 2019, he said that breaking up companies such as Facebook was “something we should take a really hard look at”. Jameel Jaffer, a media legal expert at Columbia University, told me: “I would expect the Biden administration to be pretty aggressive in enforcing the anti-trust laws. And to have the whole spectrum of harms in mind, not just the democratic harms, but harms relating to user privacy and consumer welfare.”
It is reported that President Biden is considering of establishing an anti-trust tsar, aimed exclusively for the purpose of restoring competitions in in the Big Tech areas.
Donald Trump and other Republicans always claimed that Facebook was too liberal, that it was biased against conservatives. But Trump did very well out of the platform. Both Trump and his high profile supporters regularly featured in the top 10 most shared Facebook posts of the day.
Donald Trump and some Republicans were forever convinced and claimed that Facebook was too open-minded and that it was biased against conservatives. This being said, Trump did alarmingly well out of the platform, because Trump and his high profile supporters were almost always featured in the top 10 most shared FB posts each day.
Trump’s indefinite suspension from both Instagram and Facebook of course changes that dynamic again. But would he have been suspended if he’d had a year to go of his presidency rather than a week? This popular dynamic has now taken a turn since the indefinite suspension on Trumps Facebook and Instagram accounts. While Trump’s suspicion has to be visited through that vey lens, Facebook is trying very hard to play it down, while also agreeing to Joe Biden’s opinion that a free internet is not necessarily splendid and excellent.
