Mark Zuckerberg Says a Warren Presidency Would Be an ‘Existential’ Threat to Facebook in Leaked Audio
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has classified an Elizabeth Warren presidency as an “existential” threat to his company.
In leaked audio posted by The Verge, Zuckerberg — speaking with Facebook employees at company meetings — expressed deep concern that Warren would attempt to break up Facebook should she win the presidency. And were that to happen, Zuckerberg promised legal retaliation.
“[I]f she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge,” Zuckerberg said. “And does that still suck for us? Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to have a major lawsuit against our own government. I mean, that’s not the position that you want to be in when you’re, you know, I mean … it’s like, we care about our country and want to work with our government and do good things.”
Zuckerberg went on to deem the threat posed by Warren as “existential,” and vowed not to let it go unchallenged.
“[L]ook, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight,” he said.
Warren has responded to the comments via Twitter, and renewed her pledge to break up big tech companies.
What would really “suck” is if we don’t fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy. https://t.co/rI0v55KKAi
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 1, 2019
I’m not afraid to hold Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon accountable. It’s time to #BreakUpBigTech: https://t.co/o9X9v4noOm
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 1, 2019
