Citizen Zuck: Facebook Claims To Protect Us From Scams, But Who Will Protect Us From Facebook?

The ban on cryptocurrency and ICO advertisements is not the only way Facebook is putting pressure on fintech enterprises these days.

Everything about Facebook, from this ever-expanding list of controversies, to consistently inarticulate and reactive fashion of responding to them, to failure to recognize, let alone address, many societal issues that the company's operations have engendered, suggest that Mr. Zuckerberg is in no position to dictate what is best for protecting users.

Recall the "Fake news" hype of 2016: it took Donald Trump becoming president, as well as nationwide clamor over the alleged use of strategic misinformation helping him succeed in that, for Facebook to succumb into partnering with independent fact-checkers.

It took a national controversy over suppression of conservative news in the "Trending" section for Facebook to review the underlying algorithm.

Publishers who run services on the Facebook platform that come to compete with some of Facebook's own features might find themselves in trouble: for instance, soon after the platform launched their video service, it turned out that external videos get differential treatment on the website.

Zuckerberg has been sticking to his favorite mantra of "We are just a platform and as such have nothing to do with content" for years, and it was not until the recent congressional hearings that he stumblingly admitted that some of responsibility lies with Facebook.

What kind of a community does Facebook really have, and how is this community governed? Some political scientists are not shy to use a metaphor of an autocratic sovereign state, with King Mark I at its helm.

As any sovereign entity, Facebook is also firmly embedded into the political landscape.

What is more interesting is that, according to academic research, Facebook proactively maintains connections with political campaigns on both sides of the ideological spectrum, providing Republican and Democratic candidates alike with cutting-edge tools and expertise to help them make the best out of the platform's political capacity.

Along with producing a constellation of hilarious memes, the hearings posed a troubling question: if the US Congress is unable to corner Facebook's CEO over what they see as a serious national security concern, then who can? Clearly, the people who are currently in charge of the country are out of step with the brave new world of Facebook politics.