I decided to wait a few days after Zuckerberg\u2019s testimony to Congress before posting my comments to see if it had any staying power. I don\u2019t think it did. This is unfortunate because there are several important takeaways.<\/p>\n
First, I was miffed at how little Zuckerberg professed to know about the underlying issues. His response to the hotel question was baffling (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sWDwh5UxWMs<\/a>). He struggled to define hate speech and actually suggested that an algorithm should make the determination (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jbN4-QTXQZQ<\/a>). He was evasive, but most Senators gave him a pass.<\/p>\n Second, I was also astonished at how little those questioning Zuckerberg seemed to understand about Facebook\u2019s business model. It\u2019s really simple: Facebook gives you a platform, while advertisers pay the costs in exchange for the right to target you with their content. Effective targeting requires that marketers know who you are, which is why your personal data is so important. How can you engage Zuckerberg in a serious discussion if you don\u2019t understand why Facebook\u2019s success in the first place?<\/p>\n Finally, Zuckerberg seems okay with the inevitability of regulation. Of course, \u201cgovernment oversight\u201d gives him cover and creates compliance costs that potential competitors would be less able to afford. His willingness to \u201cwork with Washington\u201d has nothing to do with solving Facebook\u2019s problems and everything to do about protecting Facebook\u2019s control of the industry. He should be smart enough to do that on his own. There\u2019s no reason why he can\u2019t accept safeguard the data he captures or develop a customer agreement that a reasonable individual can understand.<\/p>\n Mark Zuckerberg is not my favorite person, but he\u2019s a smart guy. I think he has little respect for privacy and I am concerned about the data breaches, but it\u2019s time for consumers to accept some responsibility. If you are willing to post personal information on Facebook for hundreds of your \u201cfriends\u201d to see, don\u2019t be appalled when you discover that advertisers act on it as well. It should be obvious that public formats like Facebook will be full of fake news as well. While some industry oversight regarding the clarity of user agreements and data security is necessary, the federal government should largely stay on the sidelines. Government regulation usually makes things worse, this would not be an exception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I decided to wait a few days after Zuckerberg\u2019s testimony to Congress before posting my comments to see if it had any staying power. I don\u2019t think it did. This is unfortunate because there are several important takeaways. First, I was miffed at how little Zuckerberg professed to know about the underlying issues. His response […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}