Tag: Facebook Meltdown

@dseetharaman & @emilyglazer: Mark Zuckerberg Asserts Control of Facebook, Pushing Aside Dissenters

[Editor Charlie sez:  If you don’t know about the supervising stock that allows Zuckerberg, Page & Brin & Schmidt to control vast tech companies, read Chris Castle’s op-ed in the NY Post “The best way to hit back at Silicon Valley power: End supervoting stock held by insiders“]

In December, Facebook Inc.’s top brass gathered at Mark Zuckerberg’s more than 700-acre, beachfront estate in Kauai, Hawaii, for an unusual board meeting to discuss how to redirect the company after years of turmoil.

Changes came, but they weren’t what everyone expected, according to people familiar with the gathering.

Within months, Facebook announced the departure of two directors, and added a longtime friend of Mr. Zuckerberg’s to the board. The moves were the culmination of the chief executive’s campaign over the past two years to consolidate decision-making at the company he co-founded 16 years ago. The 35-year-old tycoon also jumped into action steering Facebook into a high-profile campaign in the coronavirus response, while putting himself in the spotlight interviewing prominent health officials and politicians.

The result is a Facebook CEO and chairman more actively and visibly in charge than he has been in years.

Read the post on the Wall Street Journal

Must Read: @ranaforoohar: Fact-checking Facebook’s fantasies

Criticising Big Tech can feel redundant at a time when many chief executives in Silicon Valley are doing such a good job of making the public sceptical about their business models and their executive competence all by themselves.  Even so, Mark Zuckerberg’s speech at Georgetown University and his testimony on Capitol Hill last week are worthy of note. Facebook insists it does not want to be responsible for false political advertising. So I’d like to help Mr Zuckerberg out by fact checking a few of the points of disinformation in his own communications.

Read the post on FT.com