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?Mark Is an Authoritarian?: A Facebook Investor Sounds the Alarm About the Company He Helped Build


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SOURCE: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/facebook-investor-roger-mcnamee-is-now-a-company-nemesis.html
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Summary

Like many people, Roger McNamee has recently come to believe that Facebook is, in his words, “terrible for America.” Unlike many people, he played an integral role in helping the 15-year-old juggernaut wield so much power in the first place. Intelligencer spoke with him about the dangers of Facebook’s unchecked power, whether he thinks the company is salvageable, and why Mark Zuckerberg just needs some sleep.You said that you first started to really have misgivings about Facebook in the run-up to the 2016 election, when you noticed a series of suspicious-looking memes that were denigrating Hillary Clinton — at which point you realized that outside groups were manipulating the platform.It was “Bay Area for Bernie” and “whatever for Bernie” type groups. The first thing was just a suspicion, the second thing was like, “Oh my God.” Facebook did the right thing, mind you. I’m going, “Guys, there is something really wrong here” — the only logical explanation is there is something about the algorithm and the business model that enable bad actors to harm innocent people using Facebook.I didn’t expect them to throw up their arms and promise to change everything, but I hoped that they would investigate and take it seriously. I want to avoid absolutes, but I think it’s safe to say that the business model is the source of the problem, and that it’s the same business model as before. From the point of view of the audience, Facebook is as threatening as ever.You’ve said it’s the ad-based business model that creates, in your opinion, damaging incentives that sort of reward the basest human emotions: fear, anger …Can I take a moment to describe how it works?Yeah.Because if you think about the ad model — in a traditional ad model, you collect data in order to improve your product or service, with respect to the customers that you have. And we’re not going to enforce the privacy protections.”The next thing you know, they’re growing like a bat out of hell, and the bad actors start coming in. I think the best way to solve this problem from a policy point of view is to do what we did with the chemical industry, which is to say — there are all these externalities that come from your success, all this damage that right now society is paying? I mean, I didn’t write this book because I had all the answers, I wrote this book because I think I know what the questions are, and I’m trying to get the whole world to get engaged.And I don’t really think people understand the issue that well, either …Dude, I’ve spent an entire life doing this and I don’t understand it! You asked me, “Is he capable of making this change?” And I’m saying to you I think it’s not crazy for him to wake up one day the way I did and say, “You know what? And that would be difficult, but like I said, I think he has the gravitas inside the company to persuade people: “You know what guys, what we’ve been doing here’s wrong, we’ve gotta do it differently.” But I don’t want you to come out of this call thinking I’m optimistic that that’s how things are going to go down.That’s not what I took from it. Like the rest of us, they had every reason to trust these guys for 50, 60 years and, you know, it didn’t look like they needed any regulation, so why would anybody become a pro?But we just elected 40 freshmen members of Congress where the average age is like, 40, right? And that gives you some hope.Again and again, Zuckerberg has said over the last 15 years that his whole mission with Facebook — and he always uses this kind of platitude-heavy language — is that it’s about “connecting the world” and “bringing people together,” etc., etc. And the second one is, he is willing to justify whatever means are necessary to get there, including that famous Andrew Bosworth memo that justified the murder of somebody on Facebook Live on the basis of “our growth is so important that you just have to understand that things like this are gonna happen.”So I would sit there and say, there’s an idealism there but it’s not a “puppies and flowers” idealism, it’s a very dark idealism. AMI owed about $203 million more than its assets were worth.If there’s one thing we know about the president, it’s that he cares deeply about reporters’ well-beingA new report on Klobuchar’s management style may be the most damning yetMany of those who worked for Klobuchar knew that when Klobuchar declared her intention to run for the presidency — something she has longed to do for years — they would be forced to decide about how much they should say about what they had witnessed while in her employ.“This was coming,” one former staffer said.Speaking out could lead to retribution from Klobuchar, should she be able to identify them. It was also a sign of how far Klobuchar would go to punish those who she thought betrayed her.One former Klobuchar staffer says she and others have been sharing a recent Washington Post column by conservative (and anti-Trump) pundit George Will in which he called her the Democrat “best equipped to send the current president packing.” In particular, those former staffers have found laughable — and flagrantly inaccurate — Will’s assertion that Klobuchar’s “temperament” is “her special strength.”President Hannity has voiced his displeasure with the new Congressional compromiseIt’s the end of the line for California’s high-speed rail projectAnother sign that we may be headed for an economic downturnA record 7 million Americans are 90 days or more behind on their auto loan payments, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday, even more than during the wake of the financial crisis era.Economists warn that this is a red flag. Despite the strong economy and low unemployment rate, many Americans are struggling to pay their bills.“The substantial and growing number of distressed borrowers suggests that not all Americans have benefited from the strong labor market,” economists at the New York Fed wrote in a blog post.A car loan is typically the first payment people make because a vehicle is critical to getting to work, and someone can live in a car if all else fails. But by purchasing the Memphis building and others like it, Alden has already begun coming for what it may consider a bigger prize: Gannett’s real estate.Mitch McConnell really, really wants to get this over withThere’s going to be more GOP pressure on Trump this time aroundEsquire’s new cover, which seems designed to outrage people, is outraging peoplePast presidents weren’t so blatant about this kind of thingPresident Donald Trump on Monday publicly pushed the Tennessee Valley Authority to save an aging coal plant in Kentucky that buys its fuel from one of the president’s top supporters.“Coal is an important part of our electricity generation mix and @TVAnews should give serious consideration to all factors before voting to close viable power plants, like Paradise #3 in Kentucky!” Trump tweeted.His missive came just days before the TVA board is slated to vote on the future of Paradise Unit 3, a 49-year-old coal plant that the federally owned utility has said would be too expensive to keep operating.

As said here by Benjamin Hart