Hughes sees Zuckerberg’s “unilateral control over speech” as “the most problematic aspect of Facebook’s power.”
(Matt Margolis – PJ Media) Chris Hughes, the Harvard roommate of and co-founder of Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg, writes in a piece for the New York Times that “it is time to break up Facebook.”
“America was built on the idea that power should not be concentrated in any one person, because we are all fallible,” writes Hughes. “That’s why the founders created a system of checks and balances.” ….
Hughes explains that because Zuckerberg has a 60 percent control of Facebook’s voting shares, “Mark alone can decide how to configure Facebook’s algorithms to determine what people see in their News Feeds, what privacy settings they can use and even which messages get delivered.”
“Mark is a good, kind person. But I’m angry that his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks,” says Hughes. “I’m disappointed in myself and the early Facebook team for not thinking more about how the News Feed algorithm could change our culture, influence elections and empower nationalist leaders. And I’m worried that Mark has surrounded himself with a team that reinforces his beliefs instead of challenging them.”