If Joe Scarborough is going to pick a fight, he picked the right one. He's been righteously ranting about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for a while, and now he's taking his crusade to the Washington Post for a congressional audience:
He wrote about how members of Mark Zuckerberg's own family foundation sent him a letter this month.
"Those scientists pleaded with the Facebook chief executive to stop the social network from spreading racial misinformation, incendiary language that harms people, especially in our current climate that is grappling with racial injustice. Zuckerberg responded to these pleas with little more than a dribble of crocodile tears while proclaiming his concern over the raw sewage of propaganda that he allows his site to spew daily, the CEO profits mightily off hate groups and conspiracy theorists whose dangerous ideas are given a long reach on Facebook."
He went on to say that federal officer David Patrick Underwood was allegedly murdered by a member of the far right Boogaloo group who promoted violent action via Facebook, and also published the fake charge that the 75-year-old man battered by Buffalo police was "antifa" and called for attacks.
"One wonders what awaits the peace activist when he finally leaves his hospital bed. Will the Facebook founder shed a tear for the battered senior citizen if a cruel fate is ahead of him because of the conspiracy theories allowed on the website? And will the Facebook founder attend the funerals of those that fell prey to the lies of a conspiracy movie that attacked Dr. Fauci, and dismissed Covid-19 as a plot hatched by a cabal of elites using the virus to make money and seize power?," he wrote, referring to the Plandemic movie spread on Facebook.
"Why are Facebook and its founder not responsible for the damage caused by spreading such conspiracy theories? The more critical question now is why Congress continues to allow Silicon Valley billionaires such as Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and Twitter's Jack Dorsey, whose company is likewise not liable for its reckless and damaging practice to rake in billions by publishing violent rhetoric, deadly disinformation, deranged conspiracy theories and foreign interference that debases america's culture and erodes our very democracy.
"Congress still lets these conglomerates luxuriate in absolute immunity from the harm they cause to Americans' life. Citizens can hold car companies, airline corporations, restaurants and doctors and small business owners liable for problems they cause, yet tech billionaires bear no personal responsibility for the wrecked lives and damaged democracies that lay shattered at their feet."
He called Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and Dorsey "vapid vulgarians" who put at risk American's health and elections at risk.
"Worse, Americans can't even trust that you won't allow foreign spies to undermine this year's presidential election. You have already proved yourself capable of turning a blind eye to foreign interference, so long as the advertising checks clear.
"That is but one reason the monopolies you lord over should be broken into pieces, the immunity that holds you harmless should be stripped away at once and the companies you run should be sued into bankruptcy. Perhaps then American democracy will have a fighting chance to survive."
I agree with him. They are a danger to democracy, and if you agree, too, you should let your Congress members know. Maybe public opinion can force them to grow a spine.
