Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, has always been the person to come up with some quotable and iconic lines. Remember the slogan from his original business card “I’m CEO, bitch” or the progress-embracive, “move fast and break things.” This time, in an interview with Slate’s Will Oremus, Zuckerberg made the candid statement, “I’m a power user of the internet.”
It is no secret that the social media company has been working hard, tightening its ad policies and limiting third-party app developers from the restriction-less freedom they once enjoyed on the platform. Most of these changes began with the backlash that came along with the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal. Now, after making a lot of amendments to protect user data and privacy on the social media network, Zuckerberg called in reporters to answers questions pertaining to the company’s recent activities.
Oremus was among these reporters and inquired the company CEO on whether or not he himself would use a questionable and misleading application such as “thisisyourdigitallife.” For those of you who don’t know, the mentioned app was designed by a Cambridge psychology professor Aleksandr Kogan. Back in 2014, the app was used to gather data from 270,000 Facebook users and all of their friends. Kogan then packaged all the data and sold them off to Cambridge Analytica. Oremus's question was intended to siphon out whether the company CEO himself would compromise this personal information in the hands of unknown third parties. This question led Zuckerberg to make yet another iconic quote, “I certainly use a lot of apps; I’m a power user of the internet.”
“Zuckerberg says he recommends that people use ‘best practices’ to protect themselves online, and beware of social engineering hacks, rather than abstaining from online services altogether. Didn't answer whether he personally uses an ad blocker or VPN.” Oremus said in a tweet, in regards to his interview. Currently, Zuckerberg’s “power user” statement was started to gain a lot of traction with Twitter users flooding the platform with some hilarious tweets, as you can see above.