Pics: Zuck's Notes Photographed, Reveal What He's Worried He'll Be Asked
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has unprecedented access to the personal lives of millions of Americans, so it’s perhaps fitting that they just got a detailed look into his own mind.
As the tech billionaire prepared to testify in front of Congress regarding data breaches and political bias concerns at Facebook, a few of Zuck’s own notes were ironically “leaked” to the media.
An Associated Press photographer snapped a high-resolution image of the CEO’s open binder — and the notes reveal that Zuckerberg was apparently worried he’d be asked to resign from Facebook.
According to the AP images published by Fox News, a section of Zuckerberg’s binder was labeled “Accountability” and seemed to be the business leader’s prepared responses in case he was asked by Congress to step down from his company.
(Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“Resign?” the CEO’s notes to himself read. “Founded Facebook. My decisions. I made mistakes,” Zuck appeared ready to admit.
“Big challenge, but we’ve solved problems before, going to solve this one. Already taking action,” his prepared “cheat sheet” stated.
A significant portion of the billionaire’s notes seemed intended to punch back against Apple, or at least make Facebook seem to be less of a villain compared to other tech companies.
(Credit: The Associated Press)
“Zuckerberg’s potential retort comes after Apple’s Cook made comments at the end of March in an interview with Recode’s Kara Swisher and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes,” explained Fox News.
“When asked what Cook would do if he were dealing with the problems Facebook and Zuckerberg are currently dealing with, Cook succinctly replied: ‘I wouldn’t be in this situation,'” the news outlet continued.
(Credit: The Associated Press)
Judging by the snapshot of Zuck’s binder, that comment from Cook struck a nerve, and the Facebook chief was prepared to criticize Apple in front of Congress.
“He also may have mentioned that when someone installs an app on an iPhone, you give the iPhone accesss to some information, ‘just like when you login with Facebook,'” Fox reported, referencing Zuckerberg’s prepared notes.
“In the notes, there is also a mention that there are ‘lots of stories about apps misuing Apple data, never seen Apple notify people’ and it is ‘important you hold everyone to the same standard,'” continued the outlet.
The difference, of course, is that Apple is not currently embroiled in multiple scandals involving data mining without the user’s express consent, and what certainly looks like a left-leaning political bias that may be prioritizing certain viewpoints while censoring others.
That first scandal involves Cambridge Analytica, a firm that collected and collated personal data on 70 million Facebook users for political purposes. Facebook claims that it was unaware this was happening and took action to stop it, but the damage had already been done.
As The Western Journal previously explained in detail, the second scandal involves “algorithm changes” that appear to be boosting certain media outlets — often those with a liberal slant — while penalizing conservative journalism. Whether or not this was intentional is still up for debate.
The fact that a single click of an Associated Press photographer’s camera allowed Zuckerberg’s notes to be shared with the entire world illustrates just what kind of world we now live in. We face privacy and censorship concerns that would have seemed impossible a few decades ago.
Innovations like Facebook and social media as a whole certainly have a place; they can bring people together and allow news and opinions to spread in powerful ways.
Power, however, tends to corrupt… and asking tough questions of Mark Zuckerberg and other CEOs is vital to ensuring that free speech is not lost in the tumultuous wake of new technology.
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