Mark Zuckerberg controls data

The argument

Facebook knows more about its users than any other organisation on earth, and the argument here is that this knowledge is itself a form of power — one without precedent, because the material it operates on did not previously exist in any collected form. Scale is the first element. Every day, more than 500 terabytes of information flow into Facebook's servers: not records a state compelled anyone to file, but things individuals volunteered about where they were, whom they knew, what they cared about and what they did next. The second element is what can be extracted from it. Using its algorithms, Facebook can predict to a high level of accuracy whether a user is pregnant, smokes, takes drugs, is gay or lesbian, and how intelligent they are. These are inferences about matters people frequently have not disclosed and sometimes actively conceal, drawn from behaviour that seemed innocuous at the point it was recorded. What makes this power rather than merely knowledge is the asymmetry it creates. The holder of such a dataset knows things about hundreds of millions of people that their governments, employers and families do not, and can act on that knowledge — in what it shows them, what it withholds from them, and what it sells — while those people cannot see the inference being made about them, let alone contest it. Proponents of this position argue that no ruler before now has held anything comparable. Historical power rested on armies, territory and law, all of which are visible, contested and geographically bounded. Harnessing this data grants Mark Zuckerberg an unprecedented glimpse into everyone's lives, across borders and outside any single jurisdiction. On that basis his control of data makes him the most powerful person of all time.

Context

In the digital world, controlling information is the ultimate exercise of power. Facebook, and therefore Mark Zuckerberg, controls more information than anyone.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Data is useless unless you can do something with it. Data protection laws prevent Mark Zuckerberg from doing much beyond marketing with the data he has. It would be like having the most powerful weapon in the world at your fingertips but being utterly powerless to use it. This illustrates the nature of Zuckerberg's power. He has virtually unlimited power at his fingertips but is prevented by the law from accessing it.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P4] He controls the data but cannot use it.

Framing

Data accumulation is the most impressive source of power. From the ancient world to today, harnessing data is critical. Had King Herod not known which households had children under the age of two-years-old in biblical Bethlehem, he couldn’t have massacred the innocents. Today, without data, it is impossible to accumulate political, financial, or business power.