“He’s one of the richest people on earth. He’s an adult. He is about 30 years. He can answer questions if he’s the CEO. … Stop juvenilizing men here in Silicon valley.”
Here is how Kara Swisher, co-founder and Executive editor of technology news website recode, was responding to the treatment the CEO of Facebook mark Zuckerberg has received from lawmakers during testimony on Capitol hill last week. (Transcoding belongs to the parent company, VOX, VOX media.)
Swisher talked about women podcast rule Politician. She is a veteran technical journalist, hosts recode decode, a podcast, and one of the most authoritative conferences in the Silicon valley. I reached out to her to learn more about why she thinks the media and legislators “juvenilize” the people in Silicon valley and what it will take to stop it.
A slightly edited transcript of our conversation.
Sean Illing
When you say that we “juvenilize” the man of the largest American technological companies, what do you mean?
Kara Swisher
Well, I mean, mark Zuckerberg is an adult, we still call it “genius” and we still surprised that he put on a suit and we wonder if it will be difficult for him to testify before Congress. I find that odd, given that he’s one of the richest and most powerful people on earth.
We strive to make people like Zuckerberg off the hook, considering them as boys. Zuckerberg not to make a little mess as a child for dinner. He badly mismanaged the company, and the country paid the price for it. It needs to possess, and we must accept it. Treating him like a child will not help.
Sean Illing
You’ve been covering technology for a long time. Why do you think these people are treated in the same way? We just bought into the silly myths around Silicon valley?
Kara Swisher
Of course. They dress up in their little hoodies they wear casual clothes and they remain in this state of eternal youth, and we buy it because they are not like adults. And there are many young people in technology, but the truth is that most successful companies work with elderly people, so it’s a lie that it was mostly young kids running the show. But we perpetuate this idea all the time.
“Zuckerberg not to make a little mess as a child for dinner. He badly mismanaged the company, and the country paid the price.”
Sean Illing
There is a vaguely libertarian idea that people in Silicon valley like to release that innovators should be left alone to work its magic.
Kara Swisher
Right, this is ridiculous. Bill gates tried this procedure in a more brazen way with Microsoft a few years ago. His whole posture that said, “I don’t need you, I can’t communicate with you, I’m here for innovation.” But this is ridiculous. These people are obscenely rich and they create these technologies and they do not want to take responsibility for their creations.
I’ve seen this attitude in Zuckerberg on Capitol hill, and he, basically, to go with him. There are exceptions, of course, but many of the questions were soft and indirect. This is a problem. People like Zuckerberg and gates needs to take responsibility for what they build, and people should hold them accountable when they don’t.
Sean Illing
What price we pay for not challenging these SEO technology as we have?
Kara Swisher
They are so arrogant that they do. When Zuckerberg first become President, he had a business card that says “I’m CEO, bitch” which is so childish and ridiculous. I mean, really? Then following his motto was “move fast and break things”. But if you break things, you should fix them.
Sometimes I need to destroy the old so that you can build anew, but the idea that you can just break stuff, as you know, presidential elections and not to take responsibility when it goes bad-that’s crazy, especially when you’re making billions in the process.
Sean Illing
Do you think that legislators are just too shy or they just don’t understand people and technology, they follow?
Kara Swisher
I want to say that it is too difficult for these legislators to understand, but that’s their business. They know how to regulate banks, so don’t tell me that they can’t get their arms around social media. But listen to what Zuckerberg the hearing last week, it was pretty clear that the majority of senators were ready and had no idea what they were talking about. It can’t happen.
“Mark Zuckerberg is an adult, we still call it ‘genius’”
Sean Illing
The majority of these tech executives are white men, and that has a lot to do with how they are seen and treated. How different do you think it would be if we had more women tech CEOs and more women on boards?
Kara Swisher
I don’t know. We tend to praise white people, it’s just the way it is in this country. But Sheryl Sandberg is a key Executive in Facebook, so this particular problem is more than half. I recently asked the head of communications at Facebook if they had any stimuli in their system. I would like to know if there were people inside who do not agree with all the others. I have not received a response.
Facebook is constantly talking about how “solid” they are, but I think we need less cohesion in these companies. We need people who are asking the question: “what the hell are we doing?” We need people who think differently, who have different life experiences, and more variety is definitely the best way to do it.
Sean Illing
I was not hoping it will happen soon, as I had not counted on tech companies to self-regulate. So where does that leave us? What you need to do to push back?
Kara Swisher
I don’t know. Now Congress can’t even decide on lunch, so don’t expect them to do anything meaningful. And it’s not exactly easy to make voters excited about regulating Facebook, partly because it is difficult to explain, and people don’t fully understand the consequences.
But I’ll say this: among the major tech companies — Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon — Facebook is most vulnerable, because it can backfire in the same way AOL did. It can be wildly popular one minute and then suddenly no one else uses it. Companies like Amazon and Google are much better protected against collapse or a negative reaction because they are involved in many related businesses. But this is not the case with Facebook so that Zuckerberg, more than anyone else, better figure it out soon.
Sourse: vox.com
