Mark Zuckerberg has moved quickly to put a digital bargepole between himself and one of Facebook’s influential and well-regarded board members.
He was attempting to limit the damage caused by a tweet that could have far-reaching consequences as he continues to expand Facebook around the world.
When Marc Andreessen dismissed India’s decision to block Facebook’s “free” mobile internet scheme as “anti-colonialism”, he stoked the fears of those who believe Zuckerberg’s stated philanthropic ambitions are actually a front for his desire to dominate the internet in the developing world.
“I found the comments deeply upsetting,” Zuckerberg wrote on Tuesday, as uproar grew.
“They do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all.”
Andreessen, an early Facebook investor, has apologised – and deleted his tweet.
Why?
It’s damaging because it hits right to heart of what is a perennial problem for Facebook: trust.
In the developed world, every privacy policy change and feature addition is met with fierce investigation.
And that’s because people want to know why? Why, for instance, does Facebook use face-recognition software on our photos? Why does Facebook insist we use our real names?
The answer – to help us organise our digital and real lives – is only partially satisfactory to some.
