Facebook is a Monster Too Big to Control

The CEO who started the year telling investors that 2018 would be all about making sure that Facebook “isn’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being and for society,” has now assumed the manner and appearance of a post-toga-party penitent atoning for the way he trashed your parents’ basement.

Sombre suit. Pastel tie. Freshly trimmed hair cap. Mark Zuckerberg, the 33-year-old wunderkind looking now like a tired version of the 19-year-old undergrad who launched a social media revolution in his dorm room, told a joint U.S. Senate committee hearing Tuesday that he’s sorry, responsible and making corporate amends. Ill advisedly, he then offered a near recitation of previously supplied remarks that framed the company as “idealistic and optimistic” and working hard to be a “positive force in the world.”

In other words, he described a company that has yet to graduate from short pants, a company that as Zuckerberg himself testified has figured out privacy and policy issues “reactively,” or as others might say, on the go. Good news: with each and every passing day Facebook is getting better at that, including developing new AI tools that will do a better job of identifying fake accounts being used to identify false information.

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