Apple vs Facebook: War of words between Cook, Zuckerberg heats up

Facebook's persistent problems of fake news and data manipulation were amplified after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke out. All eyes are on Facebook to see how it deals with these plaguing issues amid increasing criticisms.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook last week slammed Facebook's methodologies and said Apple, unlike Facebook, was not into monetizing consumer data. In an interview to Recode, Cook said, "We could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer - if our customer was our product. We've elected not to do that."  

When asked what he would do in a situation like this, if he was in Zuckerberg's shoes, he responded saying that he would never be in a situation like this. Cook believes that his company monetizes products and not consumers.

Zuckerberg, who is already dealing with a loss of almost $100 billion in terms of share value of Facebook, responded to Cook's comments by calling it "extremely glib". In an interview with Vox, he claimed that Cook's statement was misleading. He stated, "You know, I find that argument, that if you're not paying that somehow we can't care about you, to be extremely glib and not at all aligned with the truth."

He defended his business model by claiming that Facebook is a free service for people to connect to each other and many can't really pay for it. He believes that advertising is the only rational business model that can accomplish such goals.

Zuckerberg said, "If you want to build a service which is not just serving rich people, then you need to have something that people can afford. At Facebook, we are squarely in the camp of the companies that work hard to charge you less and provide a free service that everyone can use."

He evoked the Stockholm Syndrome to compare Tim Cook's argument. In his opinion, we should not let companies that are working hard to charge us more, tell us that they actually care about us.

Facebook is in the eye of the storm due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that broke out last month. The company has been questioned over their misjudgment and carelessness regarding personal data of over 50 million users.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg had made a New Year resolution to fix Facebook. Other than data manipulation, the social media giant is dealing with the problem of fake news.

Citing the 2 billion-strong user base, Zuckerberg believes that they often have to behave like a government. In order to solve the problems plaguing the brand, he wants to make the entire process of framing policies more democratic in nature.

In the interview he stated, "It's just not clear to me that us sitting in an office here in California are best placed to always determine what the policies should be for people all around the world. And I've been working on and thinking through: How can you set up a more democratic or community-oriented process that reflects the values of people around the world?"