Poor Little Rich Boy

Apple is loved; Google is admired more than it is loved; and Facebook? Though used almost as universally as Google, yet it is criticized by almost everyone. No matter what Facebook or Mark Zuckerburg do, people will find a way to find fault. They’ll hate it and still use the site…

Take Safety Check, a Facebook feature that is activated in specific areas at specific times when disaster strikes. It allows users to flag themselves as safe after a disaster for friends and family to see. It was activated after the Nepal earthquake and after the Paris attacks and now during the Chennai flooding. But it didn’t activate the same after a recent terrorist attack in Beirut. So why Paris and why not Beirut? Two reasons, said Facebook VP, Alex Shultz:
1)      There was lot of activity on Facebook as events unfolded in Paris (“Facebook became a place where people were sharing information and looking to understand the condition of their loved ones.”).
2)     War zones like Lebanon aren’t the same thing as the other cases “because there isn't a clear start or end point and, unfortunately, it's impossible to know when someone is truly ‘safe”.
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. But not to the hordes who come with pitchforks and torches at everything that Facebook does…

When (Facebook founder) Zuckerbrug and his wife announced to pledge 99% of their shares (worth $45 billion) to charity, there was a slew of articles questioning criticizing the act. Why?
1)      Donations to charity attract tax breaks; so wasn’t this just a case of Zuckerburg giving money with one hand and getting some of it back via tax breaks, asked some.
2)     He wasn’t giving the money to existing charities; rather he was giving it to a new company he founded who would then decide how to spend it. Who knew what they would spend on? Or when?
Are those questions even reasonable? Who said Zuckerburg has any obligation to give up his earned billions? Or to give it to specific causes for spending at specific times decided by others who have no claim to the money anyway?

Sometimes I do feel that old “poor little rich boy” line applies perfectly to Mark Zuckerburg.

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