I’m guessing here, but Zuckerberg came off well in those hearings, amongst the public. He seemed like he was genuinely concerned that he had created some kind of monster and was hoping for help. I want to like him.
Here’s why Facebook is still evil.
He was the founder and creator. Let’s face it, the Winklevoss brothers would never have done anything with it, anymore than McDonald’s could have existed without Ray Kroc. Assuming you saw the movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK.
In fact, if you’ve also seen the movie, THE FOUNDER, starring Michael Keaton as the guy who stole the McDonald’s idea from the McDonald brothers, it’s eerily almost the exact same story.
Brothers stumble on something that people love, which they would have no idea how to exploit. Visionary salesmen Ray Kroc or Mark Zuckerberg basically steal the company from the brothers and turn it into the most successful brand ever.
The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same!
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/the-winklevoss-twins-have-mark-zuckerberg-in-their-sights
Anyway. I kind of like Zuck, as I said. But he’s not much more than a mascot I fear. It’s yet to be written whether he turns out to be the good guy he’s trying to portray. For all his “gee shucks I never knew this would happen and the buck stops here” talk, he really clammed up about exactly how intrusive Facebook’s business model is.
Bloomberg News puts it this way:
“Zuckerberg found it hard to plainly acknowledge that Facebook tracks users from device to device, collects information on websites people visit and apps they use, gathers information on people’s physical locations, collects phone call logs from Android smartphones and pulls in some online activity from people who don’t even have Facebook accounts”.
And their company’s prime directive it to make money off of that information, literally any way they can. And how they do it is all secret.
Have you ever seen a CEO say “We need to cut back on our assets and give ourselves a big haircut?”
When I make a post, I now feel the Facebook algorithms deciding how many of even my friends get to see it. At first it was just a hunch, but it’s building towards paranoia. A picture of my kids is seen by everyone, if you go by likes and responses. If I plug this blog… much quieter. And the other day Facebook offered to “Boost” my blog post if I just gave them my credit card.
They know when you are promoting, and then they pick you’re pocket. It’s nothing new. Ask a Realtor.
My personal page has a few thousand people on it, because when I started it I didn’t know the difference between a fan page and personal. I still don’t. If you are reading this, you have my email address.
When we created a Bob Rivers Show page, well over 100,000 people signed up quickly.
This year I had lots more Maple Syrup to sell (because I go crazy for just about every hobby I have). When I posted it on my personal page, I’d get 5-10 orders over a day or two. I wondered, what would happen if I posted on the Bob Rivers Show page… so MANY followers. So I did. Nothing happened.
1 order. But Facebook suggested I “Boost that posts.” I figured I’d do a little experiment with 50 bucks. Facebook then bragged to me that we’d “reached” almost 8,000 people.
But wait a minute. I thought we had 115 thousand followers? I paid to reach 8,000 of them. I feel like we built audience so that Zuckerberg could sell it back to us. Brilliant. Until we realize it’s a ripoff.
Then I realized. It’s a black box extorting money. Not accountable in any way. And the smaller you are, the more rudely it can treat you. You have no recourse. It’s a waste of money. Unless you’ve got a huge propaganda budget.
Which is why I think Zuckerberg can’t fix it. You can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube. You have shareholders.
If I had Facebook stock, I’d dump it. I write this knowing that their robotic algorithms could, in theory, be tracking me now. After all, I told them where to look.
This makes me feel better about wanting to go back on the radio. ?
