Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has responded to a New York Times article about him signing off on an effort to only show pro-Facebook stories, but it’s not what you think. He hasn’t addressed the point about Facebook’s “push to defend its image" as alleged by the article, but latched onto a different issue altogether. The article happened to mention that Zuckerberg was recently seen in a video, riding an “electric surfboard" with an American flag. He has now responded on Twitter, refuting that and quipping: “Look, it’s one thing for the media to say false things about my work, but it’s crossing the line to say I’m riding an electric surfboard when that video clearly shows a hydrofoil that I’m pumping with my own legs". Many Facebook users were amused, and asked him various questions about the surfboard vs hydrofoil debate, to many of which Zuckerberg gave tongue-in-cheek replies.
“You were more surfing the boat’s wake than pumping the hydrofoil, right?" a Facebook user asked, to which Zuckerberg responded, “A bit of both — but the pumping part really gives away that it’s not electric". Another said it wasn’t even an e-foil, to which Zuckerberg agreed. Another user wrote: “I mean no disrespect when I say this Zuck, but now you know how the rest of us feel like when the media blatantly falsely reports stories or even your own “fact checkers" who negate attempts at healthy debate, especially quite often when it comes to ideas, concepts or even beliefs that we may know for certain or believe might be true. I hope that this experience will leave you with more empathy towards the common man whose truth is often subjugated by those with the lack of journalistic integrity.
* If it makes you feel any better though, people that actually paid attention to what you were doing, were acutely aware using your own physical power". Zuckerberg replied, saying he had a lot of empathy for what was being described and added that he doesn’t usually point out “everything that the media gets wrong" but this happens “every single day".
The New York times report, authored by Ryan Mac and Sheera Frenkel, said that pro-Facebook news items were being pushed by the company so as to improve its image in the eyes of the users. Mac reacted to Zuckerberg’s quip, tweeting, “Zuckerberg has said nothing publicly about the WSJ investigations and the only thing he’s disputed in our story about him wanting him to separate himself from scandals was a post about his hydrofoil, which… ok".
So…. he read the story and this is what he’s disputing https://t.co/Jned0QgeIb pic.twitter.com/HDkMTVoRcR— Ryan Mac 🙃 (@RMac18) September 22, 2021
He also had several other points against what transpired under Zuckerberg’s Facebook post and addressed some of the particular comments made by the latter there. He added that the New York Times article has since been updated.
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