Time magazine editor-at-large and global-warming alarmist Jeffrey Kluger called on Facebook today to censor users who promote criticisms of vaccines, commonly known as anti-vaxxers. While Kluger is absolutely right to note that Facebook would be well within its rights to do so and that private-party censorship is not a First Amendment free-speech issue, Kluger's paternalistic lecturing and the logic undergirding it is quite telling.
Mark Zuckerberg
Politico Describes Mark Zuckerberg's Failure to Fool Conservatives Into Supporting Immigration 'Reform'
By P.J. Gladnick | July 8, 2014 | 3:29 PM EDT Remember all those radio and television ads running for over a year supporting immigration "reform" sponsored by a group with the annoyingly deceptive title of "Americans for a Conservative Direction?" They were financed by Obama acolyte and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. However, if you think many people were fooled by those ads you would be wrong according to Jessica Meyer at Politico.
Meyer describes how naive Zuckerberg has been in his attempt to fool conservatives into actually believing that his organization is on their side. He apparently thought that an big infusion of Silicon Valley bucks was all that was needed to deceive folks that he politically opposes. The only one really fooled was Zuckerberg himself. Not only has he completely wasted millions of dollars, he is continuing to fool himself by throwing good money after bad as described by Meyer:
By Matthew Sheffield | May 8, 2013 | 1:19 PM EDT
The far left hate campaign against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is really quite a sight to behold. The guy clearly is not a conservative but the fact that a political group he founded spent money on a 1-week television ad campaign featuring two senators speaking positively about oil drilling and the Keystone XL pipeline has sent the self-proclaimed merchants of tolerance into a fit of rage.
Not content with manufacturing false allegations of censorship against Zuckerberg and Facebook, extremist groups have now organized a boycott of the social network where they are refusing to purchase ads from the company--for two whole weeks. The threat is pretty absurd on its face but the motivation behind it is no joke. As I wrote last week, the real motive behind the campaign is to intimidate Zuckerberg into bowing down to the jackbooted "progressive" power structure. The recent independence Zuckerberg has demonstrated must not be tolerated.
By Matthew Sheffield | May 2, 2013 | 2:34 AM EDT
A far-left activist group is upset at Facebook because the social network company is blocking it from using Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s image as a means to attack him via his own creation.
CREDO Mobile, a small cellphone operator which uses left-wing activism as a way to promote its business (apparently some corporations are people), has launched a new campaign to condemn Zuckerberg because money which he donated to FWD.us, a political group he helped found, was used to run an ad promoting the Keystone XL pipeline, a project which environmental groups are seeking to block.
AP's Writeup on Expiration of Facebook 'Lock-up' Period Fails to Note Founder Zuckerberg's $1B IPO Cash-out
By Tom Blumer | August 14, 2012 | 3:12 PM EDT In her story this aftermoon on the imminent expiration of the company's "lock-up" period during which certain employees and insiders must hold onto their company stock, Associated Press Technology writer Barbara Ortutay reports that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be locked into his holdings until mid-November -- while omitting out of apparent ignorance the fact that he previously cashed out to the tune of over $1 billion.
The relevant excerpts (full story saved here for future reference, fair use, and discussion purposes) follow the jump:
NBC's Star Jones Rants: Okay 'Rich White Guy' Zuckerberg Wears Hoodie, But 'Ghetto' For Trayvon Martin
By Kyle Drennen | May 17, 2012 | 12:51 PM EDT
In a bizarre attempt to make Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wearing a hoodie at a recent Wall Street meeting into a racial issue, on Thursday's NBC Today, attorney and panelist Star Jones decried the supposed "hypocrisy" of it all: "...when we talk about Mark Zuckerberg, rich white guy, wearing a hoodie, we call him brainy and self-confident....But when a young black kid walks down the street in a hoodie, that's ghetto." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Moments later, she made it clear that she was referring to Florida teen shooting victim Trayvon Martin: "...what I'm saying to you is, is you're having a discussion about an article of clothing where two months ago, that article of clothing was looked at as negative."
By Lachlan Markay | May 25, 2011 | 11:44 AM EDT
A software upgrade at Facebook has some conservative groups worried that their hard-earned followings might be rendered useless. The upgrade will "archive" all existing Facebook groups, thereby revoking administrators' access to member lists, unless they receive an exemption from Facebook (and the accompanying software).
The company has not revealed how groups are being chosen for these exemptions, but a number of prominent conservative groups recently told the Daily Caller that they had not received one, and feared they wouldn't. Losing access to member lists would remove key functionality, as administrators would no longer be able to contact group members en masse (Facebook "pages" will not be affected).
Facebook insisted in a statement that the company "determined what groups to archive based on a number of factors, including the amount of recent activity."But a quick look at a few of the groups that did and did not get these exemptions demonstrates that neither activity nor group size was the overriding factor. Indeed, plenty of conservative-leaning political groups with active memberships are still waiting on the software given to smaller, far less active liberal-leaning groups.
By Doug Ernst | April 8, 2011 | 9:44 AM EDT
It wasn't long ago that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was concerned about how he would be portrayed in The Social Network - and with good reason. As John Nolte observed, "there's no doubt that this look at how the creation of a cultural phenomenon left behind a wake of betrayals, broken relationships and billion-dollar lawsuits is an absolutely fascinating one."
By Geoffrey Dickens | October 14, 2010 | 6:34 PM EDT
Chris Matthews and Chuck Todd tag-teamed against Alaskan Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller, on Thursday's Hardball, as Todd claimed Miller was "running a terrible campaign" and warned that "it may be popular among conservatives to bash the media" but Miller is "turning off" voters when he does it. For his part Matthews called Miller "unlikable" going as far to compare him to the negative depiction of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the movie "The Social Network" as Matthews pined: "He seems about as likable as that guy...Joe Miller seems like that guy." Of the Tea Party conservative Matthews also added: "He seems like a misanthrope," and predicted: "I don't think people are gonna like this guy." (video included)
The following exchange was aired on the October 14 edition of Hardball:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Go to Alaska, you brought that up a minute ago.
CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS: Yeah.
MATTHEWS: Could a Democrat be elected Senator from Alaska against two Republicans?
By Kyle Gillis | July 22, 2010 | 12:06 PM EDT
Despite his aloofness, it might be time to become a fan of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
"World News" devoted three segments to the social networking company on July 21, the day it reached 500 million users. Reporter Bill Weir and anchor Diane Sawyer profiled Facebook and interviewed its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg responded to Sawyer's questions about Facebook including whether or not Facebook is a "colossus that will mark the end of privacy" with a response that seemed allegorical to today's Tea Party and conservative movement.
"It's just the conversation. You don't-you're not designing the end result?" Sawyer asked.
"No, I mean, people make that up for themselves," Zuckerberg said. "Right, I mean that's, that's the power of democracy in these systems is that when you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place, so what we view our role as is giving people that power."