The problem with Zuckerberg's post is this. In 2011, FB was caught deceiving people about how it violated their privacy. It signed an agreement w/the FTC pledging to stop doing that. Today, Zuckerberg is outlining the steps he promised to take in 2011.
As I re-read Zuckerberg's statement, it's increasingly bizarre. He sees himself as the victim here, that he, a powerless man worth $70B+, was tricked. He still thinks Facebook is a 'community'. And he doesn't acknowledge he threatened to sue the newspapers reporting the scandal.
Ok, now I'm beginning to see the playbook for Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. They will use this scandal to entrench their monopoly dominance. Any attempt to reduce their power through interoperability or limits on FB's use of data will be met with 'we have to protect privacy'.
The key is to recognize that this scandal isn't just about privacy and data, it's about *market power* and how data plays into that. This would be a minor problem if Facebook didn't have reach to billions and dominance over marketing, advertising, and newspapers.
Mark Zuckerberg is engaged in corporate surveillance over competitors and employees, which is creepy. But it has become a threat to democracy and our economy because Facebook controls the financing of so much of our art, news, culture, and entertainment.
It is true enough that the Obama campaign used data on Facebook in 2008 in a way that privileged their candidate. But in 2008, FB had $300M in revenue. In 2017, it had $40B in revenue. It's a different scale of power, like comparing a butter knife to a machine gun.
