New York (AFP)
Mark Zuckerberg says he is ready to "go to war" or even "sue" the federal government, to avoid a dismantling of Facebook advocated by a growing number of politicians in the United States and even by one of the co-founders of the social network .
These remarks were made by Zuckerberg during a question-and-answer session with employees in July, according to a recording unveiled Tuesday by the specialist site The Verge.
On his Facebook account, Mr. Zuckerberg confirmed the veracity of these statements.
Even if the content of his comments was supposed to "stay in house", it is, according to Facebook boss, a "version without filter" of what he thinks and tells employees about a series of topics ranging from from the group's social responsibility to its Libra virtual currency project.
But the first question was about the threat of dismantling following the escalation of the group's legal troubles and attacks from politicians like Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Zuckerberg was very offensive to his employees.
"Someone like Elizabeth Warren thinks the solution is to dismantle businesses," he said. "If she is elected president, I bet we will have a fight, and I bet we will win," he added.
"I do not want to start a major lawsuit against our own government," said the leader. "But in the end, if someone tries to threaten something existential, you go to battle and you fight".
The woman quickly reacted on Twitter saying she was "not afraid to hold tech giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon to account."
"What + would really fear," wrote Mrs. Warren, referring to words used by Facebook's boss, "would be to not seek to alter a corrupt system that leaves huge companies like Facebook using illegal anticompetitive practices, trampling on consumers' right to privacy and constantly shirking their responsibility to protect our democracy. "
- "Anger" -
Grievances against tech giants like Facebook and Google are growing, from the protection of personal data to the grip on the advertising market. They face several investigations for anti-competitive practices launched by some US states and are also in the sights of the European authorities.
The hypothesis of the dismantling of the social network comes back regularly.
Chris Hugues, one of the co-founders of the group, called in May, Facebook to split into three, with a first company composed of the social network, its original activity, a second company heading the Instagram application and a third entity comprising WhatsApp.
Mr Zuckerberg's focus on growth, Mr Hugues regretted, "led to neglect of safety and civility for the click race".
Received in late September by Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, where he also met with elected officials in the US Congress, Zuckerberg again rejected the idea of selling Instagram and WhatsApp to address concerns over the weight of his social network , according to Senator Josh Hawley.
Dismantling the behemoths of tech will not diminish for example the risk of interference in elections, Zuckerberg said in July. On the contrary, "because companies can no longer coordinate and work together".
It will not reduce hate-attack problems either because all the procedures put in place will be "more fragmented", he argued again.
Twitter for example faces the same types of problems as Facebook but does not have enough money to fix it quickly, he said. "Our investment in safety is more important than their turnover."
"I'm worried about the direction of the discussions," finally released the manager. But "I understand that if we do not help to solve these problems and put in place a regulatory framework in which people have the impression that the responsibility is real and the government can regulate our sector, then yes, the anger people will only intensify. "
© 2019 AFP