The multiple paradoxes of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg

Elise Berlinski has found it close to impossible to conduct research using Facebook’s CrowdTangle database on large-scale misinformation spread by groups such as QAnon, something reminiscent of the old Soviet model

Mark Zuckerberg hopes “to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions”. File picture

From Facebook’s psychological experiments on unwitting users in 2014 to the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 or the Facebook files in 2021, controversies involving the company have been numerous. 

Despite an increased demand for transparency, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (formerly known as Facebook), has never been too inclined to commit to any specific actions. This can be explained by the fact that social media operates in the attention economy.