Damian Collins is getting all hot under the collar about people not thinking he’s quite as important as he thinks he is. For Collins wants to make sure that anyone asked to come and give evidence to a Commons committee must do so – at risk of actual and real punishment if they don’t.
To which the correct response is, of course, bugger off matey.
The Zuckerberg issue is easy to explain:
Another snub came from Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook.
It’s being taken as some remarkable sign, that Mark Zuckerberg is calling for regulation of Facebook and social media. It’s not remarkable in the slightest, this is just what monopolist incumbents do and always have done. For any savvy businessman knows – and no one says Zuck isn’t savvy – that regulation protects against new insurgents into the market. Only large and established firms can afford the costs of obeying the regulations, de’ye see?
Be careful what you wish for: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls for MORE government and outside regulation for social media companies instead of relying on tech firms to police themselves
Why should he be careful what he wishes for?…
See MoreA great question of our times is, well, where’s all this economic growth then? We’ve a technological revolution going on but wages and GDP don’t seem to be rising. Is this capitalism in its death throes as the rich b’stards gain everything?
Well, no. Wages are really a measure of what you can consume and if consumption is going up then so are real wages. And we’re not actually interested in GDP, what we want to know is what value can people consume?…
See MoreYou know the story, data is the new oil, Facebook makes its billions by selling our data. We give that data to Facebook for free, we’re all being ripped off and they should be paying us.
Except, except:
Lawmakers in the U.K. released about 250 pages of internal Facebook Inc. FB -2.24% emails that they said show how executives, including Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, gave some third-party developers preferred access to user data and contemplated charging developers for data access.
The latest outrage is apparently that Mark Zuckerberg is not willing to censor your Facebook posts. Which does raise the obvious question – why would you want Mark Zuckerberg to censor your Facebook posts? The specific subject is Holocaust Denial but that’s only a horse at the gates, not the underlying issue itself:
… See MoreMark Zuckerberg defended the rights of Facebook users to publish Holocaust denial posts, saying he didn’t “think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong”.
Members of the Westminster Parliament have been waxing indignant recently because Mark Zuckerberg – you know, the gazillionnaire who runs a global concern dealing with 2 billion customers – will speak to the US Congress but only sends minions to speak to them, those members of the Mother of Parliaments. This is of course entirely right and just – no, not their complaining, but that he won’t turn up for them.
He will though turn up to the European Parliament:
… See MoreMark Zuckerberg will appear publicly before the European parliament on Tuesday, ending a terse standoff with the institution, but further inflaming tensions with the House of Commons, which has repeatedly requested an appearance from the Facebook founder.