Mr. Zuckerberg and the Internet. An essay on power relations and privacy negotiation

• Main Author: Cristiana Lotrea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bucharest 2018-06-01
• Series: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology
• Subjects: Surveillance; privacy; power Relations; Mark Zuckerberg
• Online Access: http://compaso.eu/wpd/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Compaso2018-91-Lotrea.pdf

This essay aims to analyze the power relations existing within one of the most interesting events of the last few months, namely, Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing before the American Congress, on the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Despite the fact that many questions addressed serious issues, such as privacy policies or information leakage prevention, there were few senators who seemed to audition the witness more for tech advice, or who didn’t seem to understand how the virtual world functions. These interventions sparkled the amusement of social media users and, unexpectedly, helped Zuckerberg redeem, to a certain extent, his reputation.