Misjudging Facebook: An Insight Pandemic Blinds Pundits
August 24, 2020
The stories about Mark Zuckerberg’s TikTok activities have sparked some semi-pundits’ engines to turn over. The Wall Street Journal (a Murdoch outfit) and the Next Web (a Silicon Valley style “real” new service) are two examples. The savvy Roman emperor look alike may be the Force causing the TikTok starship to lose momentum. Definitely exciting, and, if true, Mr. Zuckerberg may have the strategic insights of Julius Caesar who smoked Vercingetorix. TikTok has been wounded, and it is a slick story about insider access, political power, and business.
However, there’s an even more interesting bit of punditry about Facebook. Navigate to “Content Regulation Lapses Cast Doubts on Facebook’s Biz Model.” The write up states:
the problem is not one of image. Repeated data and content regulation lapses on Facebook’s part have emerged, and these have rightly raised severe questions about their business model, and led to more attention, scrutiny and questioning from several governments across the world, including India.
Navigate to the source document for of this “Facebook will fail” lens.
News flash: Content moderation is holiday window dressing. Facebook provides advertisers with quite useful access to people who will purchase stuff and believe things. The anti Facebook advertising boycott went nowhere.
As long as Mr. Zuckerberg causes some information channels to believe he can influence the president of the United States to help him chop block TikTok at the knees, Facebook wins.
Clear thinking about Facebook is needed. News channels who push the Facebook influence agenda and pundits who miss the big picture are like Miracle Gro dumped on a moth orchid. Mr. Zuckerberg is able to operate in a big field just right for shaping into an extension of Mr. Caesar’s holdings.
Stephen E Arnold, August 24, 2020
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