It’s time to Fire Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg may not be a robot, inspite of his awkward answers to Senators. What he is however, is a man with too much power.

The idea of replacing Mark Zuckerberg as CEO of Facebook is not a new idea. His handling of the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal was not very good, and while the scandal has not hurt Facebook’s stocks as much as some anticipated, Facebook’s role in the media, in the future of publishing and content — is increasingly under fire.

Zuckerberg controls Facebook thanks to the way the company’s stock is structured, meaning he has final say on the company’s direction. This means, one man basically is one half of the Ad-centric digital Advertising duopoly. What Mark says, basically goes, and it doesn’t matter how many former Facebook executives come forward or how many Facebook employees cringe inside. It doesn’t even matter what investors on Wall Street are saying. This is one obstinate CEO.

It recently came out a second Facebook investor wants Mark Zuckerberg out as chairman. But like the former CEO of Uber, Mr. Zuckerberg has gotten far too personally involved in Facebook’s scam on society and brands. Facebook’s business model has legitimatized data harvesting and by its very nature, data breaches and a Big Data of algorithmic profiling has become now ubiquitous.

The good news is Facebook has 2 billion users and its mobile advertising hasn’t really plateaued in any meaningful way, yet. The bad news is Facebook must hire even more content editors and security workers. The bad news is Facebook’s algorithm won’t be able to detect what constitute hate speech for up to another 5 years.

The bad news is for activist investors who watched the Cambridge Analytica scandal wipe $60 billion off the firm’s market cap over the past few weeks; Zuck is untouchable — one of the wealthiest and most influential men in how algorithms have hijacked the once free web. Now we are the product where we barter our customer information for perks that now seem relatively insignificant. (No matter how groovy you find Instagram!)

It’s Time to Fire Greatness

The real question is not #deletefacebook, I’d argue the real question should be #FireZuckFacebook

Now is a golden opportunity for those investors to gang up and call for Zuckerberg to step down. (Business Insider)

Facebook’s board has a real lack of independent figures, and not counting Zuck or his right hand lady Sheryl Sandberg, their average age is 56, hardly young enough to understand how perversely algorithms are impacting the mobile addiction that has polluted the attention economy.

Facebook’s app empire has created a toxic competitive environment among tech companies of creating the most addictive apps possible all for engagement in walled gardens stocked up with digital dopamine hacks.

While there’s nothing not to like about Zuck’s wife, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckberg has too much power in a company that has exploited its way into our hearts, where to “connect” now has an insidious connotation of all the people in our tribe’s radius we can spy upon.

As infantile as the proceedings were, I wont’ lie, Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional grilling last week was a reminder that he still has total control of Facebook. A bit like a monarch of the new attention capture economy that specializes in behavior modification.

What’s even more perverse is thanks to the firm’s stock structure, its public investors — even those with $1 billion (£700 million) holdings — don’t have much say on the company’s future, according to Business Insider.

Zuckerberg owns lots of class B stock, enough to afford him 60% of the voting power. He is also Facebook’s chairman. In other words, if he wants something to happen at Facebook, it happens.

Big surprise then, boy wonder has a monopoly control over his own private digital monopoly. By the way, it’s connecting the world like never before (I kid).

Wall Street Investors Have One Hand Behind their Back with Facebook

Now that Zuckerberg and Facebook are under closer political scrutiny over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook’s powerless activist investors have picked an opportune time to criticize the firm’s structure. For investors it’s a risky situation, Zuck does not seem to be a person very capable of delegating or sharing power. Many of the original co-founders no longer work at Facebook.

So here we have in essence Mr. Zuckerberg is not accountable to anyone and inspite of great profitability, Facebook’s “Business Model” is really the rule of law of Zuck.

Essentially Mr. Zuckerberg does not need to answer to even his own board, nor the shareholders. Right now, Mr. Zuckerberg is his own boss and it’s clearly not working — -and more investors are speaking out (just tune into CNBC on any given day to witness it).

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who called for Zuckerberg to step down as chairman earlier this month. Stringer — who supervises funds with an almost $1 billion stake in Facebook — wants an independent chairman and three new board members with expertise in ethics and data privacy. And, he’s not alone in his thoughts and feelings on Facebook’s direction.

However, don’t expect Zuck to step down anytime soon. He recently said:

One of the things that I feel really lucky we have is this company structure where, at the end of the day, it’s a controlled company. (Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook)

In the spirit of regulating algorithms for a better future, if America did the right thing, he would be forced to step down and Facebook’s business model changed to be make us and America’s national security less vulnerable. But, when’s the last time American Capitalism or Silicon Valley, did the right thing?

By the way I recently created a new publication here on Medium that you are welcome to join, it’s called FutureSin. I’m Medium’s most prolific futurist.

It’s time to Fire Mark Zuckerberg was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.