In the European Parliament’s public meeting with Mark Zuckerberg today, Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian MEP, hammered Mark Zuckerberg with a brutal question about his legacy, comparing him unfavorably to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
European legislator says Jobs and Gates ‘enriched’ society, asks if Zuckerberg ‘created a digital monster’
How does Zuckerberg want to be remembered?
How does Zuckerberg want to be remembered?
is a reporter who writes about law, technology, speech, and democracy. A journalist trained as a lawyer, she has been writing about tech for 10 years.
“You have to ask yourself how you will be remembered,” said Verhofstadt, who is also the chair of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. “As one of the three big internet giants together with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have enriched our world and our societies, or on the other hand, the genius that created a digital monster that is destroying our democracies and societies.”
Prior to dropping that bomb, Verhofstadt — following similar questions by Manfred Weber, a MEP for Germany — called Facebook a monopoly and asked Zuckerberg if he would open Facebook’s account books to antitrust regulators in order to determine whether the company is a monopoly.
The full comment comparing Zuckerberg to Gates and Jobs follows:
On a more personal note, I really think we have a big problem here. And it’s not solved by saying we’re going to fix it ourselves. And you have to ask yourself how you will be remembered. As one of the three big internet giants together with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who have enriched our world and societies, or on the other hand, the genius that created a digital monster that is destroying our democracies and our societies. That is a question you have to put to yourself.
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