Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 06

40 / Canadian Government Executive // December 2018/January 2019 Democratic Dilemma Mr. Zuckerberg’s W hen Mark Zuckerberg checked out of Harvard for California’s Silicon Valley, his lofty ambitions were to connect the world and make a ton of money. On both counts, he has been wildly suc- cessful – as now more than two billion daily active users share content on at least one of Facebook’s social media and messag- ing platforms. The company has thus been compared to a nation-state, but in truth, few countries can rival such numbers, and few politi- cal leaders are as impactful as the Facebook leader. Mentored By Jeffrey Roy Governing Digitally by Bill Gates on how not to act as a young billionaire, until re- cently, Zuckerberg seemed to be comfortably evolving into a global statesman – learning to speak fluent Mandarin and visit- ing every American state in a manner that fueled speculation of political ambitions. The past two years, however, have not been kind to the social media giant and its chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder. Election meddling and privacy scandals have led to calls for either massive reforms within the company or government in- tervention, or both. Even Silicon Valley observers, such as early Mark Zuckerberg Testimony: Senators Question Facebook’s Commitment to Privacy