Leaked Audio Ignites a Battle Between Elizabeth Warren and Mark Zuckerberg
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Tuesday morning went after Facebook following leaked audio from an internal Q&A with CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
During the Q&A session, Zuckerberg answered questions related to Warren’s comments about her plan to dismantle big tech companies if she becomes president.
“If she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge,” he said, according to a transcript obtained by The Verge. “And does that still suck for us? Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to have a major lawsuit against our own government,” Zuckerberg stated.
“But look, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight,” he continued. “And I just think the case is not particularly strong on this … It’s just that breaking up these companies, whether it’s Facebook or Google or Amazon, is not actually going to solve the issues.
“And, you know, it doesn’t make election interference less likely. It makes it more likely because now the companies can’t coordinate and work together. It doesn’t make any of the hate speech or issues like that less likely. It makes it more likely because now … all the processes that we’re putting in place and investing in, now we’re more fragmented.”
Warren retaliated on Twitter, reiterating her belief that the system which allows tech giants like Facebook to “engage in illegal anticompetitive practices” is “corrupt.”
“What would really ‘suck’ is if we don’t fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy,” she tweeted.
What would really “suck” is if we don’t fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy. https://t.co/rI0v55KKAi
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 1, 2019
Zuckerberg didn’t shy away from Warren’s comments. In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg stood behind his statements and even linked to the full transcript of the Q&A session.
“Even though it was meant to be internal rather than public, now that it’s out there, you can check it out if you’re interested in seeing an unfiltered version of what I’m thinking and telling employees on a bunch of topics,” Zuckerberg stated.
Warren first introduced a proposal back in March aimed at dismantling tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google.
The goal, Warren claims, is to eradicate and stop major mergers from happening within these Goliath-like companies.
Recent years’ deals like Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods and Zappos, as well as Facebook’s takeover of Whatsapp and Instagram would subsequently become dismantled if Warren’s proposition were to come to fruition.
The proposal would also force companies with over $25 billion in annual revenue to define themselves as “platform utilities,” strong-arming them into new restrictions and regulations.
Facebook specifically has become one of the largest targets for Democratic presidential candidates. Many fall in line with Warren’s distrust for the social media company, specifically for its data misuse during the 2016 presidential election.
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