Turning down suggestions from any lawmaker is not easy for anyone, including high and mighty like Mark Zuckerberg!
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and co-founder of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) visited Washington this week to meet up with US Congress lawmakers and President Donald Trump. In this meeting, Zuckerberg was reportedly asked to “break up” Facebook, in light of allegations regarding regulatory and legal concerns against the social media behemoth, to which Zuckerberg answered with a clear refusal.
This is Zuckerberg’s first public trip to Washington after the Cambridge Analytica scandal that resulted in a $5 billion fine imposed on the company by the Federal Trade Commission.
The issues Facebook is under fire for include its seriousness about protecting the privacy of its customers, escaping participation in the competition by buying potential rival services, and inadequate censorship of politically “biased” content.
However, out of the accusations mentioned above, it seems the last one is the most pressing in the eyes of Senator Josh Hawley, who strongly opposes the apparent political bias Facebook’scontent is rife with. In a tweet, the senator expressed that he proposes for Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as, allow an independent investigation into its censorship regime to clear the charges it’s under.
Zuckerberg’s full view on the topic is not yet known, except for his acknowledgement of the bias in censorship and his decisive refusal to adhere to Hawley’s propositions.
Break Facebook, And Other Tech Giants As Well
Hawley, however, is not the first to endorse breaking up of tech giants, including Google.
With an increase in awareness about the misuse of data by tech giants, there has been a shift in public opinion about the ethicality of the online services they use.
An article by Vox highlights several politicians and government officials who have criticized big tech companies for a variety of reasons.
The same article consists of polls on Americans aimed at gauging their opinion about breaking up of big tech companies on grounds of increasing future competition and unfair prioritization of content convenient for the companies own growth.
It seems that people are vouching for an increase in how transparently big sites like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple work. Additionally, with growing reports about data leaks, consumers are concerned about the security of their data.
There is, without a doubt, a pressing need for changes in policies related to social network and tech services, but the way it is being pushed for is a leap in the wrong direction.
Accusations against Facebook piling up
Presently, Facebook is having a whopping 2.41 billion monthly active users and 70 companies under its wing, including big names such as Instagram and Whatsapp. As of September 21, 2019, it had a market capitalization that exceeded $541 billion.
Despite its popularity, or perhaps because of it, Facebook is indicted for something or the other on the regular.
In August, earlier this year, the Facebook Messenger Kids App was under scrutiny for insufficient protection of its users’ data.
Earlier this week, concerns over Facebook and Youtube providing easy access to harmful Appearance Enhancement Steroids through targeted ads were also raised.
