CNET también está disponible en español.
Ir a español Don’t show this again
Best Products All the best products Editors’ Choice Versus Best Headphones Best Laptops Best Phones Best TVs Best Speakers Best Routers Best Smart Home Best Tablets Best Refrigerators Best Washing Machines Best Digital Cameras Best Hard Drives Best Printers Best Wearable Tech Best AV Receivers Best iPhone Apps Best Media Streamers Best Dishwashers Best Coffee Machines Reviews All reviews Appliances Audio Cameras Cars Desktops Drones Headphones Laptops Media Streamers Monitors Networking Phones Printers Smart Home Speakers Tablets TVs VPNs Wearables & VR Web Hosting News All news 5G Apple Computers Culture Google Health & Wellness Internet Microsoft Mobile Newsletters Sci-Tech Security Tech Industry Special Features Photo Galleries Video All video Most Popular News How To Special Features Appliances Audio Cameras Gaming Home Entertainment Laptops Smart Home Tablets TVs Wearable Tech CNET Top 5 Tech Today The Apple Core What the Future Alphabet City 3:59 CNET Podcasts How To All how to Appliances Computers Gaming Home Entertainment Internet Mobile Apps Phones Photography Security Smart Home Streaming TV Tablets Wearable Tech Forums Smart Home All smart home Best smart home devices Guide to smart living News Tour our smart apartment Tour our smart house Product compatibility Amazon Alexa Apple HomeKit Belkin WeMo Google Assistant Lutron Nest Philips Hue Samsung SmartThings Wink Cars Roadshow Reviews Video News Pictures Recalls AutoComplete Car Audio Electric Cars Best cars Best Trucks Deals All deals The Cheapskate Best VPN Services Best Web Hosting Best Password Managers Audio Deals Camera Deals Desktop Deals Hard Drive Deals Laptop Deals Monitor Deals Phone Deals Printer Deals Software Deals Tablet Deals TV Deals Download Editions Editions English Español China France Germany Japan Korea Politics Zuckerberg says he’s ready for a legal fight if Warren becomes president Facebook’s CEO delivers fighting words to employees in leaked audio of internal meetings.
By Carrie Mihalcik October 1, 2019 9:52 AM PDT In leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg tells employees he’ll fight regulators who want to break up Facebook.
James Martin/CNET Mark Zuckerberg is ready to “go to the mat” and fight for Facebook if Sen.Elizabeth Warren becomes president.The Facebook CEO said he doesn’t want to be in a fight with the government over breaking up the company, but that if Warren, a 2020 Democratic candidate, is elected, he expects to mount a legal challenge.And he expects to win.
That’s just one tidbit from audio of internal Facebook meetings obtained by The Verge and published on Tuesday.During two meetings, which reportedly took place in July, Zuckerberg talked with employees about a wide range of issues including the company’s Libra cryptocurrency , protecting content moderators and the rise of competitors like TikTok .
Warren has been calling for the break-up of tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple because they have too much power over the economy, society and democracy , she says.But Zuckerberg reportedly told employees that breaking up tech companies won’t solve any issues.
“You have someone like Elizabeth Warren who thinks that the right answer is to break up the companies …
I mean, if she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge.And does that still suck for us? Yeah,” said Zuckerberg, according to a transcript posted by The Verge .”But look, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight.”
In tweets responding to the leaked audio, Warren said she’s not afraid to hold big tech companies accountable.
“What would really ‘suck’ is if we don’t fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy,” Warren tweeted on Tuesday.
What would really “suck” is if we don’t fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy.https://t.co/rI0v55KKAi
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 1, 2019 Throughout the meetings, Zuckerberg appears to take a more aggressive tone than he has in public and at past congressional hearings.
Facebook has been mired in controversy over privacy concerns and election meddling and is facing multiple antitrust investigations .Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives have publicly said they’ll do whatever it takes to fix the social network.During the July meetings, Zuckerberg seemed to downplay criticism, telling employees that it should be expected.
“When the issues came up last year around Cambridge Analytica, I did hearings in the US.I did hearings in the EU.It just doesn’t really make sense for me to go to hearings in every single country that wants to have me show up and, frankly, doesn’t have jurisdiction to demand that,” Zuckerberg said, according to the transcript.”But people are going to use the position of the company and me to criticize us.
I think that that’s, to some degree, that’s like a normal thing that we just need to deal with and expect that that’s going to happen.”
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but Zuckerberg confirmed in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the transcript published by The Verge was from a question-and-answer session he held with employees.
“The transcript from one of my Q&As a few months ago just got published online,” he wrote.”And even though it was meant to be internal rather than public, now that it’s out there, you can check it out if you’re interested in seeing an unfiltered version of what I’m thinking and telling employees on a bunch of topics like social responsibility, breaking up tech companies, Libra, neural computing interfaces, and doing the right thing over the long term.”
During the meetings, Zuckerberg also made a dig at Twitter and tried to brush aside concern about the rising popularity of social video app TikTok , saying the company is working on its own products to get ahead of the short-form trend.
“It’s starting to do well in the US, especially with young folks,” Zuckerberg said of TikTok, according to the transcript.”We have a product called Lasso that’s a standalone app that we’re working on …We’re trying to first see if we can get it to work in countries where TikTok is not already big before we go and compete with TikTok in countries where they are big.”
Zuckerberg also offered some advice on talking with friends or family that might have a negative opinion of the social network, adding that employees can be ambassadors for the company because they know the “heart” of Facebook.
“I just find that sitting down and talking to people and having them know that you care about the problems and acknowledge that there are issues and that you’re working through them …I think it just makes a big difference,” he said.
Originally published Oct.1, 8:23 a.m.PT.
Update, 9:52 a.m.PT: Adds more details from the meeting transcript and response from Zuckerberg..
