Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out about a significant ’20-year mistake’ he believes he made while leading Facebook.
The now 40-year-old initiated what would become the social media giant Facebook during his sophomore year at Harvard University. Today, he serves as the chairman of its parent company Meta, which also owns Instagram, and is regarded as one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Despite his success and billionaire status, Zuckerberg has experienced setbacks along his journey, with one particular mistake standing out in his mind, though it may not be what people expect.
Throughout his path to becoming one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, Zuckerberg’s career has been marred by controversy, including issues related to data harvesting, privacy violations, whistleblowers, and allegations that his platforms have not adequately protected children from exploitation.
And who could forget Zuckerberg’s encounter with former U.S. President Donald Trump?
Facebook was accused of facilitating misinformation during the 2016 presidential elections, and Trump has repeatedly claimed—without evidence—that Zuckerberg interfered in the 2020 presidential election, according to The Independent.
Trump alleges in his forthcoming book, as reported by Politico, that Zuckerberg aimed to influence the election in favor of Joe Biden, who was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2021.
It seems Zuckerberg’s greatest regret over the past two decades pertains to the more ‘political’ aspects of his role.
During a discussion at the Chase Center on Tuesday (September 10) with Acquired podcast hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, Zuckerberg acknowledged there were ‘a lot of things’ Facebook ‘did wrong’ over the years.
However, one thing he particularly ‘regret[s]’ is that Facebook ‘accepted other people’s view of some of the things that they were asserting that [Facebook] were doing wrong or were responsible for that [he doesn’t] actually think [Facebook] were’ accountable for.
He elaborated, as quoted by Platformer: “When it’s a political problem […] there are people operating in good faith who are identifying a problem and want something to be fixed, and there are people who are just looking for someone to blame.”
“And if your view is ‘I’m going to take responsibility for all this stuff’ – people are basically blaming social media and the tech industry for all these things in society – if we’re saying, we’re really gonna do our part to fix this stuff, I think there were a bunch of people who just took that and were like, oh, you’re taking responsibility for that? Let me like, kick you for more stuff.”
Zuckerberg concluded: “Honestly, I think we should have been firmer about and clearer about which of the things we actually felt like we had a part in and which ones we didn’t.
“And my guess is if the IPO was a year and a half mistake, I think that the political miscalculation was a 20 year mistake.”
Whether Zuckerberg is indirectly referring to his conflict with Trump or other instances where Facebook has faced criticism, it’s open to interpretation.