The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google

by Scott Galloway

Facebook representatives testified on Capitol Hill in March 2017 about their role in the Russian disinformation campaign. Zuckerberg also testified before Congress after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Here are the questions I’d have asked if I were at a hearing: 1. Please raise your right hand and tell me if you are a media company, and if tobacco is addictive. 2. You appear to have embraced the celebrity, influence, and margins of a media firm, but not the responsibilities. Why? 3. Facebook’s response to the accusation of being a vehicle of foreign interference has progressed from a “crazy idea” to admitting to “millions” of ads, then to “hundreds of millions.” How much worse will it get? 4. If a firm, wittingly or unwittingly, becomes weaponized by Russian intelligence, isn’t the responsible thing to do to shut the firm down? 5. The average age of the Cleveland Cavaliers is twenty-nine. The Detroit Lions, also twenty-nine. A Facebook employee’s average age is twenty-eight. Is it possible Facebook management doesn’t have the historical context for understanding the important role of the fourth estate in our society? 6. When you claim it’s impossible to ensure no weaponization of your platform, don’t you mean “unprofitable”? It could be stopped, but at substantial detriment to your free cash flow. Haven’t you chosen profits over country? 7. If the New York Times can prevent weaponization with $100 million in free cash flow, why can’t Facebook with $16 billion? 8....

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