Mark Zuckerberg’s Double Standard

by Rebecca Savastio

Mark Zuckerberg is really something. He has quite some double standard set for himself, doesn’t he? Namely, it seems he wants to be the only one who drastically violates the privacy of U.S. citizens. It’s being reporting that Facebook founder Zuckerberg called President Obama to express disappointment about the Obama administration’s habit of spying on the American people. Really? Why? First of all, why does Zuckerberg have the President’s direct phone number? Secondly, what does he care if the government spies on U.S. citizens? He certainly does so every single day, and he does so for his direct personal profit.

Mark Zuckerberg has quite a double standard set for himself, because he thinks it is perfectly fine and dandy to spy on all users of Facebook and then sell their information to advertisers; even pimp out their names and images for use on advertisements, all for no compensation to the user. Zuckerberg also does not want anyone to make money except for himself, and will go to great lengths to ensure that he squelches publishers’ chances to have their stories seen on Facebook news feeds because he wants everyone to buy advertisements from him instead. He’s also in bed with Buzzfeed- a decided conflict of interest for a company who prides itself on getting the most “relevant” content to its users.

Zuckerberg wrote a Facebook post last night in which he basically said that his designers work hard to enhance security, and that they work on securing the public against lawbreakers, but they didn’t expect that the people they would most have to watch out for would be those in the government.

Zuckerberg justifies his complete double standard by ignoring the fact that his titan tech organization accumulates private information on it users and then offers that wholesale to the highest bidder. He is now lashing out at government reconnaissance. Zuckerberg’s dissention is particularly focused on the fact that the government hacks illegally into people’s computers; a practice which is definitely against the law.

His “worries” seem to center on a paper which details the fact that the NSA has taken over the Internet. Basically, Zuckerberg contends, utilizing a program called QUANTUM, those in power can violate someone’s private internet and spy on all of their activities even if the person is not on a terrorist list or even under suspicion at all.

Zuckerberg says this practice is in direct violation of Facebook’s endeavors to make sure its users’ private information is secure. What he means by secure is, of course, a tremendous double standard, as he captures all of his user’s private information, including “private” messages, and he uses all of that information for his own personal financial gain. He did note in his little rant, however, that Facebook scrambles clients’ interchanges, utilizes secure programming and urges individuals to participate in more secure sign-in techniques.

Zuckerberg says lawmakers have to conduct themselves in a more open fashion regarding what they’re doing; but what about him? He’s much more focused on Obama, and not his own double standard. He does not hold out hopes for any immediate change, but he was able to get through to President Obama directly on the phone and have a nice chat with him, it’s being reported. That, in itself, is far more disturbing than most programs the NSA is running. Here’s a message for Mark Zuckerberg and his double standard: how can you pluck a twig out of someone’s else’s eye when you have a log in your own?