Is Mark Zuckerberg thinking of running for president?
This last summer Mark Zuckerberg set out to tour the U.S., specifically 30 states he had never visited before. During that time, he got a chance to talk with Trump supporters, survey the country’s vices, and see how the digital age is faring with the common man during this post-industrial age.
What he found was a need for creating a stronger community amongst US citizens and finding a purpose for the new generation, one that would inspire the country to return to its former glory as the land of continuous opportunity.
The tour sounded more like a campaign than a business trip, which might indicate a possible interest in running the country sometime in the future?
Zuckerberg Answers
During the heart of the tour, back in May of this year, Zuckerberg publicly declared that he is not currently thinking of running for office anytime soon. Yet, his interest in meeting Trump-supporters, his hiring of political insiders, and his public renouncement of his atheism seem to point at a public image campaign closely resembling someone who is strongly considering a position in government service sometime soon.
While his close associates have talked to him before about a possible role in government and how that would affect Facebook, he has told them to tell the media that he is not interested at all at the moment.
Still, one has to question that if Trump did it, why can’t he?
Here is Why
While Trump was definitely a powerful figure before he held the seat of the most powerful individual in the world, Zuckerberg and Facebook hold an enormous influence over its users that could sway a run at the Presidency of the US strongly in his favor.
Quite frankly, Zuckerberg’s reach is just too oceanic for any one man, especially while sitting on the president’s throne.
Add to that the fact that Facebook is notorious for running fake news on its site, and you have a recipe for a geopolitical nightmare, with one man potentially playing the role of global dictator behind the guise of “social media genius”.
The Power of Facebook
Facebook is not simply an online community of family, friends, and like-minded people getting together to discuss their lives and interests, but a data collection portal that retrieves personal information for marketing purposes.
That being said, how easy would it be to know how to push people’s buttons if you already knew their buttons and how to push them, especially when it comes to something as personal as someone’s political views and opinions?
Facebook truly gives one the power to influence and even sway popular opinion in the other direction. Like any media platform, it can be used for good or for not so good purposes.
The question still arises, if and when Zuckerberg ever decides to run for the presidency, will he use his social media machine to influence voters or will he run on his own merits as a patriot and concerned citizen?
A better question might be, why would he even need the president’s seat to make his liberal dreams come to fruition when Facebook, as of right now, has already proven its strength in gathering information and its influence in reporting what people need to know, even if those reports are sometimes considered not so newsworthy after all?
Dil Bole Oberoi
