Ask HN: Should Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg Quit? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg Quit?

In light of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, should these two important leaders quit as they prioritized growth even over the well being of their users?

View on HN

It isn't just Facebook that collects this data and allows others to use it - it's the business model for dozens of other organisations including Google. Two people quitting one organisation won't make much of a change but governments banding together to create legislation to better protect users would; however unlikely that is to happen.

I don't know. But is it kind of odd that Mark Zuckerberg sold about 1 million+ shares at the Facebook high, days before the Cambridge Analytica debacle? I wonder if there is some insider trading there.

Why? Users are Facebook's product, I don't understand how what happened is a surprise to anyone!

> Users are Facebook's product

This is an interesting concept. Have you written about this before?

Customers pay. What is being paid for is the product / service.

Asymmetric business models are fairly common.

Jailed

Because of which crime exactly? I get that you think this is some fantastic and insightful comment you have made, but it brings nothing to the table. I don't want to defend Facebook to heavily here but, what exactly did they, and specifically Mark Zuckerburg and Sheryl Sandberg do to deserve criminal jail time? As far as I can tell, nothing.

Facebook is a platform where users willingly put way too much personal data. Facebook sells advertising space and application space and presents ads and applications to those users. Users willingly and enthusiastically gobble up those ads and applications. Are we all shocked and amazed that there are bad actors in the market place that exploit such a massive hoard of extremely valuable data? Of course not.

Look, if you want to punish Facebook, leave. Get your family and friends to leave. Sell their stock. Take yourself, as a product, elsewhere. But there are no laws to punish a CEO and COO of a company with jail time for the exceptional stupidity of their users.

Because they knowingly threaten the underpinnings of free society. These are not naive people who have discovered that there is a problem with their product. They are extremely smart people capable of fully understanding the consequences of there actions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com