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At this year's Web Summit conference, early Facebook investor and mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, Roger McNamee, called for a criminal probe into Facebook. One of McNamee's six proposed criminal investigations of Mark Zuckerberg's company is that the company "allowed human trafficking on its platform and was 'paid to enable it to happen.'"
The Social Dilemma (2020)
An early investor in Facebook outlines the unprecedented scale of power wielded by the social media giants – and sets out his blueprint for reform
Kara Swisher:
“I did a big long interview with Mark Zuckerberg that he probably shouldn’t have done. I couldn’t get him to understand consequences.
A famous Facebook motto is “move fast and break things.” This was plastered on the walls of Facebook.
They had all kinds of sayings and stupid stuff like that. Most of these companies do.
But I remember saying, “break?” and they were like, “Yeah, break.” I’m like, “Break is bad.” It was like a debate.”
Roger McNamee:
“That was something that I think came in with the PayPal mafia. This is Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and Elon Musk as well.
They came in and brought this philosophy. It was so spectacularly successful so quickly. The issues took a long time to show up.
Silicon Valley has to remember that it’s spent 50 years in the business of empowering the people who use technology.
Now, it’s in the business of treating the people who use it as a source of fuel. We’re not the customer, we’re not even the product.
We’re a source of data that isn’t used to improve something for us. It’s used to manipulate whole populations.
In my mind, that is morally bankrupt, and I do not believe it can be fixed.
I think the way you get out of this is the way you always get out of tech problems,
which is you create an alternative universe with a different value system and you give people choices. (…)
Silicon Valley exists in an ecosystem globally, which sits there and says the only constituency that matters is the shareholder, and the only thing that management should care about are metrics.
Well, the reality is, ethics doesn’t stand a prayer in that environment. Because ethics, by definition, is the willingness to subordinate a metric to a higher value.”
Source: Recode Decode: Democracy is for sale, says “The Great Hack” director Karim Amer
Pegi Young, Musician, Bridge School Co-founder and Ex-wife of Neil, Dead at 66
Pegi Young, the singer who co-founded the Bridge School with ex-husband Neil Young, died New Year’s Day, the family announced.
“With great sadness, we confirm that on Jan. 1st, after a yearlong battle with cancer, Pegi Young - mother, grandmother, sister, auntie, musician, activist and co-founder of the Bridge School - passed away surrounded by her friends and family in her native” California, read a post on Young’s Instagram account.
Married to Neil Young for 36 years, Pegi - The inspiration for such songs as “Unknown Legend” and “Harvest Moon,” which Young posted as his song of the day on Neil Young Archives when the news was announced - sung in his various backing bands before starting her own music career. The couple divorced in 2014.
“Pegi was a very strong woman in many ways, certainly a lady to be admired,” Graham Nash told Billboard.
Pegi and Neil Young, inspired by their son Ben, who has cerebral palsy, co-founded the Bridge School to provide services for disabled children. The Youngs organized and performed at annual fund-raising concerts where artists played stripped-down acoustic sets; the final benefit was held in 2017.
“They have been truly memorable events and we have great appreciation for everyone who has been involved beginning, of course, with Neil Young and including all the many artists who have been so generous with their time and talent,” Pegi Young said in announcing there would be no concert in 2018.
John Stirratt, who played the benefit show with Wilco, said was saddened by Young’s death. In a tweet, he remembered her as “a warm host for what was an amazing yearly event.”
“Pegi Young was tireless advocate for children with disabilities,” Moonalice’s Roger McNamee tweeted. “ ... Pegi’s spirit lives on in the memories of the families she touched.”
Pegi Young launched a solo career in 2007 with her band the Survivors, which included Neil Young collaborators Rick Rosas and Ben Keith. She released a handful of albums - mostly recently 2017’s Raw - and played the inaugural Lockn’ festival in 2013.
“She’s such a kind lady,” Neko Case tweeted.
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Mark Zuckerberg's worldwide Facebook apology tour hits a snag in the EU
Mark Zuckerberg’s worldwide Facebook apology tour hits a snag in the EU
“How many times can you say you’re sorry before we stop caring?” Ian Sherr and Erin Carson report for CNET. “If Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s globe-trotting apology tour over privacy violations, election meddling and allowing hate speech to flourish on Facebook is any sign, the answer is not that many.”
“Zuckerberg said he was sorry yet again on Tuesday when he admitted to the…
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Shoshana Zuboff & Roger Mcnamee on Surveillance Capitalism
The Existential Threat of Big Tech’s Predatory Business Models
"The change begins with the realization that nothing that we are experiencing in this digital era is inevitable. Everything that the surveillance capitalists have hoisted upon us, we have accepted it as the inevitable consequence of living in a digital world. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are beginning to understand that none of this is inevitable. It’s companies getting rich in a way that produces categorical harms to people, society, and democracy."
Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
