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Comment by stupidcar | Hacker News Reader

I remember listening to a UK Parliamentary Committee that had invited the head of a popular grassroots anti-TTIP campaign to give evidence. There wasn't even a pretence of trying to be even-handed or gain a better understanding of popular objections to TTIP. Instead, all the MPs present took turns to berate him in an imperious manner. He was simply a prop for them to lecture at.

I suspect many of the forums Zuckerberg is invited to participate in are similarly vehicles for politicians to gain exposure by being seen as attacking a popular bogeymen. I can't really blame him for not wanting to spend his life traipsing around world capitals helping these politicians get TV coverage by acting as a rhetorical piñata.

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These nations feel their sovereignty is threatened by Facebook. Him ignoring them isn’t exactly helping, nor is the fact that he did submit to Congress which does the same pointless lecturing.

These nations are all losing face from being snubbed. They are going to take increasingly drastic measures to assert their authority - this is not something that will go away. You already saw this with the UK parliament seizing documents which is unprecedented in recent times.

here is the long term trend of that..as each decade advances and it takes 50% less people to create and operate firms like facebook a political storm gets bigger and bigger due the state having gutted certain small business loan and other safety nets..politically high tech firms need to understand the political cliff they are racing towards before its too late

> feel their sovereignty is threatened by Facebook

That’s kind of like saying that coka-cola feels threatened if the CEO reports an illegal lemonade stand that’s blocking his driveway.

The scales are not just different, they are absurdly different. UK is NOT afraid that they will lose sovereignty because of Facebook. Thats just ridicules.

Social media were the future of democracy up until Trump and Brexit happened, now they are the world's greatest threat to democracy.

A populist beat the incumbent and started taking America in a direction in which the majority of the voters represented by the electoral college approve of, is that not a success of American democracy? Or should are we deciding what’s right and wrong based on a different yardstick now?

You can bet both parties are going to use similar tactics next election.

It still is the future of democracy, just not the version the media and legacy nations had in mind.

And lead was a perfectly fine material for cups and plumbing once, so that in itself says nothing.

If there was a national scandal in the UK I can almost guarantee the coke CEO would be out placating politicians. Lip service is important in politics as is keeping up appearances.

We all knew that the UK didn’t have much real power over these US multinationals, but Zuckerberg made it visible. A government looking weak In the face of a single 36 year old is a sovereignty issue. It’s a huge loss of credibility at home and abroad. It has shockingly little to do with the underlying issue.

Well, if any EU country finds any evidence, they now have a huge stick to beat him/Facebook with (GDPR). Not that they don't deserve it.

As it should be. These nations need competition. Maybe then we can go beyond 'sounds good' politics.

Facebook isn't competing on reason or critical thought, it's competing on superficial appeal and clicks, as well as bots.

Exactly. And that's the level of thought running our nation states. Hence the competition idea.

You're not wrong, but the fact remains that Facebook and Zuckerberg should be accountable to the nations in which they operate. Parliamentary Committees are one of the mechanisms the UK uses to investigate and hold organizations and people to account. By refusing to appear, he encourages nations to use other powers to discover information, which we saw earlier in the week when documents from Six4Three were siezed by Parliament.

It's important that it's Zuckerberg because the buck stops with him. When other executives appear they can just pass the parcel up or down the heirachy or claim they have no knowledge of what they are being asked about.

With Facebooks business goals and reach if you can't eat a bowl of shit every so often to keep the facade of humility going then you need to step aside for someone who will.

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