Facebook finally has the opponent it deserves

The phenomenal Frances Haugen brought her traveling anti-Zuckerberg show to Brussels this week. I think she outdid herself. Once again she cleverly talked the local politicians – this time the MEPs – into the mouth: she told them that they will soon be setting the global ‘gold standard’ for regulation of big tech with the new Digital Services Act (DSA) legislation. At the same time, she smuggled in her own priorities, with a whole series of tips for how that DSA can best be tightened up to prevent Facebook (or no, we should say Meta) circumventing the rules later. And in the meantime, she kept the attention of the world media focused on the unresolved problems with Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. Despite all the best efforts by Mark Zuckerberg and his army of thousands of PR employees to change the topic.

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