Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor who has been sounding the alarm about the social media giant since the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, is not letting up.
In an interview with this news organization, McNamee talked about why he thinks Facebook should be reined in _ and possibly broken up.
As Facebook deals with the aftermath of its biggest privacy scandal yet _ political data consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtaining access to the information of up to 87 million Facebook users without their permission _ McNamee believes the company thinks it's going to "get away with it.
"Are we comfortable with that?" said the longtime Silicon Valley investor, who co-founded private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and Elevation Partners.
To be clear, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has testified before Congress and is facing lawsuits and increased regulation. It has also warned shareholders about possible adverse effects stemming from the whole Cambridge Analytica mess.
But McNamee has been criticizing Facebook and its leadership loudly and persistently since he saw reports about different issues on Facebook ahead of the U.S. presidential election _ though he continues to hold shares in Facebook.
"Call me a hopeless idealist, but I want to be able to look them in the eye and I want to be a constructive part of" finding a solution, McNamee said. He said he talked to Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in October 2016 about problems he saw surrounding Facebook during the presidential primaries and other issues, and that the conversation continued into February 2017.
"They were incredibly polite, but they didn't think they needed to do anything about it," McNamee said. "It was the equivalent of patting me on the head and telling me it's going to be OK in the morning."
Facebook has not responded to a request for comment Monday about McNamee's efforts to communicate with the company.
There is no easy solution because the problem is so complicated, McNamee said. For one thing, Facebook has become too big.
In an op-ed in the Financial Times last week, McNamee called for the reining in of Facebook and other tech giants, drawing on history and the breakup of AT&T in the 1950s.
"It is no exaggeration to say that the AT&T consent decree planted the seed for Silicon Valley," McNamee wrote. "One of the many fundamental patents in AT&T's huge portfolio was the transistor. The combination of freely licensable patents and restrictions on AT&T's ability to enter new markets enabled entrepreneurs to create today's semiconductor, computer, data communications, mobile technology and software industries, among others."
McNamee told this news organization that the changes Facebook is making now don't go far enough, and that "nobody can make them" enact change that would truly address the myriad problems with the platform, including possible manipulation of its massive number of users.
"There are 2.2 billion people on Facebook each with their own 'Truman Show,' " McNamee said. "Everybody has their own set of facts."
In addition, he takes issue with the attitudes of Facebook's top executives.
Facebook is "almost the same size as Christianity," he said. "When you are presiding over the largest interconnected organization in the world, that gets to your head after a while."
What is needed are rules to help with data security _ including better enforcement, he said. But also, the "privacy stuff must be complemented with something that acknowledges" that Facebook and other tech giants have become too big, McNamee said.
"You have to start somewhere. Maybe you can't do acquisitions, or you have to divest" certain parts of Facebook's or Google's businesses, he said.
