Zuckerberg, Roger Waters, and the case against FB

"How did this little prick, who started off going, 'She's pretty, we'll give her a four out of five. She's ugly, we'll give her a one'… How the fuck did he get any power in anything?" (Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, on Mark Zuckerberg)

On a spring afternoon, with birds chirping in the trees outside the secret/private Committee room, a little man, whose face was a rubber mask devoid of feeling, sat before a table of legislators-among them, a strange senator, John Doe, who did not belong to the Club. It fell to Doe to interrogate the rubber man, Mark Zuckerberg.

Mr. Z, you're under oath, remember that. Do you recall a company called Accel Partners?

How did you find out about…yes, Senator, I recall Accel.

And its boss, Jim Breyer.

I've met Jim.

Well, it must have been quite a meeting, back in 2004, because he supplied you with a 13-million-dollar rocket, and Facebook was on its way.

Senator, I'd say that's an exaggeration.

Then we come to a man named Gilman Louie. He joined the board of the National Venture Capital Association of America (NVCA). The chairman of NVCA? The man I just mentioned, Jim Breyer.

I don't know Gilman Louie, Senator.

Gilman Louie happened to be the first CEO of the important CIA start-up, In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel was founded in 1999, with the express purpose of funding companies that could develop technology the CIA would use to "gather data." That's not the only connection between Jim Breyer and the CIA's man, Gilman Louie. In 2004, Louie went to work for BBN Technologies, headed up by Breyer. Dr. Anita Jones also joined BBN at that time. Jones had worked for In-Q-Tel and was an adviser to DARPA, the Pentagon's technology department that helped develop the Internet. DARPA, CIA, the Internet, gathering massive data for the CIA, Facebook. Are you seeing the connections, Mr. Zuckerberg?

I'm seeing nothing of the kind, Senator.

Right. You're just an entrepreneur who is now devoting his life to charitable causes. Moving along, here's a story about you. A sketch, if you will. From the time Mark Zuckerberg was a child and attended the summer camp for "exceptional children," CTY (Center for Talented Youth), run by Johns Hopkins University, he, like other CTY students, Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google), Lady Gaga, and Andrew Yang have been easy to track. CTY and similar camps filter applications and pick the best and brightest for their accelerated learning programs. Spotting these children and tracking their progress in school and life would be a standard operation for agencies like the CIA. When Zuckerberg founded an interesting little social network at Harvard, and then sought to turn it into a business, the data-mining possibilities were obvious to CIA personnel. Through their cutouts, as described above, they stepped in and lent a helping hand. What do you think of that story, Mr. Z?

It's outrageous, Senator. My whole goal in life is helping others.

I'm sure. And as a prime asset of the Deep State, with your ability to assemble trillions of data sets on FB users across the world, and with your ability to censor content unfavorable to your bosses, you're adopting a very strange definition of "help."

I believe in community standards, Senator. If that's a crime, I'm guilty.

What community are you talking about, Mr. Z?

The human one-all of us.

I see. And you know humanity's standards of conduct and speech. How? Is God talking to you?

It's just common sense, Senator.

So common sense makes you use Facebook to keep true information about the torture of Julian Assange from the public?

All information has to be fact-checked.

And if I post a few words about the COVID vaccine that aren't rainbows and flowers, you ban me.

We rely on the World Health Organization as the authority on such matters.

Why? Who appointed that organization the final arbiter?

Somebody has to be in charge.

Otherwise?

There is chaos.

Chaos, or difference of opinion? You want to choke off the difference. You want fascism.

Really, Senator? That's where you're going?

I know, Mark. You're just a little boy who made it big. You don't have an axe to grind. You have nothing to do with the CIA. You're an American success story. Happy, happy.

Is that all? Because I have a busy schedule, and I'd like to get back to work serving the people.

How did you become what you are, Mark?

I'm harmless. Look at me, Senator. Do I look like a fire-breathing dragon? A giant trampling over populations?

You look like a boy who is wearing a rubber mask.

You see, Senator, I tapped into just one human impulse-the impulse to say I LIKE THIS, I DON'T LIKE THAT. That's all. That's all I did. I gave that a public face. The rest is history.

"Everyone on Facebook is famous for 15 minutes."

No, Senator. Everyone has a chance to be famous forever on Facebook. It's up to them to try to be liked in every way they can.

Unless they're telling the truth about something important.

Then we ban them. Why? Because telling the truth bridges over into another kind of impulse that has nothing to do with Facebook.

That's your story and you're sticking to it?

I'm just a guy with an ordinary and banal company.

I plan on setting that myth on fire and burning it down.

What about all the people who love Facebook and can't do without it?

You mean the people who say 2 plus 2 equals 4 is racist and should never be taught in schools?

They have a right to express their opinion.

But if they say Assange has been tortured for revealing the truth, you censor them.

That's different.

Why is it different?

Because my fact-checkers and researchers say it is.

Mr. Zuckerberg, I'm holding in my hand a group of internal Facebook memos. They prove your company has been working in concert with the federal government to shape what the public can read and see about COVID-19. In other words, Facebook has been acting as an agent for the government. This takes you and your company out of the realm of private enterprise-into a whole new arena, where you can be brought into court on a charge of malicious lying during a national crisis. That's a felony. At trial, expert witnesses can testify about the real facts of COVID versus the distorted picture you've presented, as a result of which picture many lives were lost. That's a compounded felony.

How did you obtain those memos, Senator? You've broken the law! You're guilty of government spying. The memos are property of Facebook. You stole them.

Mr. Zuckerberg, we can argue that charge in court. And during the protracted argument, the press will bring many facts to light. I welcome the challenge.

Are you speaking for the Department of Justice, Senator? Because I haven't received any paperwork from them. No charges have been filed against me or my company.

In case you've forgotten, the United States is composed of 50 states. If the Justice Department is nothing more than a political ally of scum of the earth, there are at least 10 states whose Attorneys General will gladly press charges and drag you into court. There are elephants in your room, Mr. Zuckerberg, and people all over the world are going to see them.

Fine. My lawyers will talk to other lawyers.

There will be a lot more conversation than that. I guarantee it.

You really think you can bring Facebook down, Senator? It's too late.

Is that what the CIA is telling you? I hate to break the news, but those people are trained to lie. That's all they do. In other words, they're like you. Let me tell you a secret, Mark. Manipulating people and their feelings has an ELASTICITY. And when it reaches its limit, it SNAPS. Speaking of which, after we adjourn this session, we're going to move into a public hearing. Of course, the television networks will be covering it. I'm going to bring on a parade of Facebook employees who will testify about these memos in my hand, and about other confidential company practices. Then we'll see what happens to that rubber mask you wear.

They told me there would be no public session…

Who told you? Your handlers? To them you're just a pissant agent who's been doing their bidding.

But I have enormous…

Wealth? You think they care about that? They'll throw you to the wolves in a second, if things get too hot.

Impossible.

Run your own test, Mark. Allow every Facebook user in the world to state I LIKE ZUCKERBERG or I DON'T LIKE ZUCKERBERG. See what happens. Put your own ass on the firing line and check out the result.

I would never do that.

Why not?

Because I own the system that does that. I'm apart from the system.

You're different.

Every person who owns or runs a system is separate from it.

I see. So in your case, people don't have to LIKE you.

I guess that's right.

They can play the like-don't-like game with each other. You can play the whole game on all of them.

ON all of them?

You can manipulate them. It's the way of the world. "There are the manipulated and the manipulators." Right, Mark?

Pavlov proved that, didn't he?

He was experimenting with drooling dogs and food.

EVERYTHING IS AN EXPERIMENT.

Where did you learn that, Mark?

I don't remember.

Were you born thinking that thought?

Some people know it, others don't.

You're quite a piece of work.

What?

We'll take a break and then go into public session. Thank you, Mark. Now I understand you and the way your gruesome mind works.