The Zuck stops nowhere: Why Meta will never be held accountable
Opinion
It’s not a question of if but when you decide to give up on your principles. Nothing will get brands, big or small, to leave Meta.
“I’ve spoken to many clients about Facebook and they say ‘Facebook’s great for business’. I’m not going to keep my job in a year because of my principles. I keep it because my business has grown.”
That’s the real answer to Thinkbox CEO Lindsey Clay’s powerful piece last month asking what it will take to hold a tech giant like Meta accountable. Or Outvertising’s Sonnie Spenser’s plaintive demands for brands to consider an exit strategy.
The answer is nothing.
Nothing will ever hold Meta or Mark Zuckerberg to account. Nothing will get brands, big or small, to leave. Ever.
Not expediency
Zuckerberg has had this industry in a pincer grip for a decade now. It’s not a question of if but when you decide to give up on your principles and succumb to being Zucked.
There’s a reason he was so quick to mould Meta further in the image of Donald Trump, now that the world is once again subjected to another four years of insanity and stupidity on the world stage.
It’s because Zuckerberg is the same as Trump in spirit and character. No morals. No shame. No guilt.
How else do you explain the motivations of a 40-year-old multibillionaire who is one of the few people in human history to legitimately do anything he wants?
This isn’t expediency.
He knows you know all this and he knows you won’t do anything about it.
All the bright and polite people who work for this man are treated respectfully instead of hanging their heads in shame.
LEAD balloon
One of this industry’s flagship events, LEAD, sees fit to accept Meta as a sponsor rather than do the decent thing and tell the company where to go Zuck itself.
The Advertising Association, which hosts LEAD alongside Isba and the IPA, claims its mission is to “promote the role and rights of responsible advertising — trusted, inclusive and sustainable”.
Tell me: what is trustworthy, inclusive or sustainable about Meta?
Is this the same “trustworthy” company that helped Trump get elected the first time by enabling a massive breach of privacy against Facebook users by the sleazebags at Cambridge Analytica?
Is this the same “inclusive” company that just gutted its DEI policies?
Is this the same “sustainable” company that relies on 30-plus massive data centres guzzling an obscene amount of water and energy? The sheer carbon footprint of these “hyperscale” warehouses is staggering.
Again, you know all this, don’t you?
What are you going to do about it? Absolutely nothing.
Dead wrong
Do you know how many media agency bosses I’ve spoken to in the last 10 years who actively keep their kids away from smartphones and social media? Some of the cleverest, kindest people in the business.
But when the business is advertising, those concerns melt away. Other people’s children are just an “audience” that a soft drink or car brand absolutely must reach. Otherwise, that poor marketing director or that agency client lead will lose their job.
There will be no job for Molly Russell, a teenage girl who killed herself in 2017 after being served thousands of images promoting suicide and self-harm on Instagram.
Ancient history? Then how about Jack Sullivan, a 20-year-old student who killed himself after being extorted on Instagram and Snapchat by Nigerian scammers?
Sullivan’s father is now suing the platforms. Will it change anything?
Will it Zuck.
You are what you eat
I repeat: this is not expediency on Zuckerberg’s part.
This is what happens when you have let a massively influential global media operation be run with no corporate oversight, no meaningful regulation and no reputational damage.
And if your answer to all of this remains “Facebook is great for business, I can’t stop spending on it”, then you are complicit. You have no right to complain because Zuckerberg has seen the data and there’s no incentive for him or his company to change. Ever.
Then, and only then, can we have a serious conversation about the role media and advertising plays in our society.
We are the enablers.
Omar Oakes was founding editor of The Media Leader and continues to write a column as a freelance journalist and communications consultant for advertising and media companies. He has reported on advertising and media for 10 years and was previously media and tech editor of Campaign. His column on The Media Leader was nominated for the BSME’s B2B Column of the Year in 2024.