Share
New York Times
It’s Time to Break Up Facebook
The last time I saw Mark Zuckerberg was in the summer of 2017, several months before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. We met at Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., office and drove to his house, in a quiet, leafy neighborhood. We spent an hour or two together while his toddler daughter cruised around. We talked politics mostly, a little about Facebook, a bit about our families. When the shadows grew long, I had to head out. I hugged his wife, Priscilla, and said goodbye to Mark.
Since then, Mark’s personal reputation and the reputation of Facebook have taken a nose-dive. The company’s mistakes — the sloppy privacy practices that dropped tens of millions of users’ data into a political consulting firm’s lap; the slow response to Russian agents, violent rhetoric and fake news; and the unbounded drive to capture ever more of our time and attention — dominate the headlines. It’s been 15 years since I co-founded Facebook at Harvard, and I haven’t worked at the company in a decade. But I feel a sense of anger and responsibility.
By Chris Hughes | 9 May 2019
RELATED TOPICS:
After Losing Population in Recent Years, California Grows Again. Is That a Good Thing?
17 hours ago
Yellen Says Threats to Democracy Risk US Economic Growth, an Indirect Jab at Trump
2 days ago
New Sea Route for Gaza Aid on Track. Treating Starving Children Is a Priority
2 days ago
At Time of Rising Antisemitism, Holocaust Survivors Take on Denial and Hate in New Digital Campaign
2 days ago
Gov. Newsom Appoints Judges for Fresno, Merced Counties
2 days ago
Israel Briefs US on Evacuation Plan for Palestinians Ahead of Planned Rafah Assault
2 days ago
Israel Orders Al Jazeera to Close Its Local Operation, Seizes Some Equipment