‘Messianic’ Zuckerberg aims to save the world

At the age of 31, Mark Zuckerberg has just become the sixth richest man in the world. His estimated net worth is $51.7 billion. Yesterday his company, Facebook, announced a tripling of profits — a day after both Apple and Twitter issued disappointing financial results.

The company also said he had requested the issue of a new, inferior class of stock. This will leave many shareholders with no voting rights, while his shares retain ‘super-voting’ power. Zuckerberg recently said he would give away 99% of his shares — but his control of Facebook is tightening.

‘We have always been a founder-led company,’ he explained. That, he said, had ‘helped us resist short-term pressures that often hurt companies’.

Facebook is already very powerful. It now has 1.65 billion active users each month, and has bought companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp. But Zuckerberg made clear that he wants to go further.

‘Everything we do at Facebook is focused on our mission to make the world more open and connected,’ he wrote. ‘We’re focused on what Facebook can be, and what it needs to be for our community. Helping to connect the world will always be the most important thing I do.’

Facebook, he said, would ‘invest in areas like spreading connectivity, building artificial intelligence and developing virtual and augmented reality’. This would help to meet ambitions such as improving education, tackling climate change and curing ‘all diseases by the end of the century’.

Some question whether he is the right man for this. His original social network, Facesmash, was criticised as demeaning to women. In 2014, Facebook paid less than £5,000 in UK corporation tax. And he has been accused of allowing his political views to colour the running of Facebook, undermining free speech and encroaching on privacy.

Yesterday, one technology blogger wrote that Zuckerberg had ‘announced that he is God’. Facebook has access to plenty of its users’ personal data; it knows who they are friends with, their hobbies and opinions. Should we be scared of their CEO’s zealous pursuit of power?

Zucker punch

His supporters say he is a philanthropist who will bring people together and make the world a better place. This highly successful man can now apply his wealth, influence and intelligence to the world’s most significant problems. He can be granted a little lofty language — we should be grateful that he is not only well-off, but also altruistic and idealistic.

This is sinister and undemocratic, say others. Facebook has no mandate to change our lives. Nobody voted for Zuckerberg, and it is not right for an individual to exercise so much influence. He lacks humility and needs to be reminded he is just a man.