Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to get in your wallet—the same way he wants to infiltrate your love life and your brain—may be put on hold as Facebook “[works] through” public concerns about the impact of the social media giant’s planned cryptocurrency. Zuckerberg and Facebook have been under fire for the unchecked power they’ve accumulated and the reckless way in which they’ve wielded it. Now, in a new interview, the Facebook C.E.O. says he’s considering the consequences of his actions.
“Part of the approach and how we’ve changed is that now when we do things that are going to be very sensitive for society, we want to have a period where we can go out and talk about them and consult with people and get feedback and work through the issues before rolling them out,” Zuckerberg told the Nikkei Asian Review Thursday. “And that’s a very different approach than what we might have taken five years ago.”
Zuckerberg was responding to questions about Libra, the cryptocurrency Facebook announced in June. Lawmakers and regulators have been skeptical about the digital coin, with bipartisan concern over privacy issues and the further expansion of Facebook’s power. On Thursday, the Facebook co-founder continued to tout Libra as having the potential to have a “profound equalizing effect on society,” but suggested that the company had a good deal of work to do before it is ready to launch. “A lot of people have had questions and concerns, and we’re committed to making sure that we work through all of those before moving forward,” he said. Asked if that could mean not launching next year as originally planned, Zuckerberg didn’t exactly shut the door on a delay: “Obviously we want to move forward at some point soon [and] not have this take many years to roll out,” he said. “But right now I’m really focused on making sure that we do this well.”
It’s a different tone for Zuck, and would seem to reflect an appreciation for the societal ramifications of his business that one rather wishes he’d adopted before his platform was used to hijack a presidential election and disrupt industries he knows nothing about. Of course, it could also be a response to the intense pressure he’s been under as his power grows, with regulators pursuing anti-trust probes and critics, including co-founder Chris Hughes, calling for the company to be broken up. Acknowledging some of the potential issues with Libra—including that it could undermine existing national currencies—may be similar to Zuck’s efforts to get ahead of would-be regulators by proposing industry-friendly regulations of his own.
It remains to be seen if Facebook’s “big focus shift,” as Zuckerberg put it, will allay concerns about the cryptocurrency. David Marcus, who is leading the Libra charge for Facebook, has indicated that the company still plans to launch its coin next year, even as he has declined to fully commit to congressional demands that Facebook not move forward until adequate regulations are put in place. But Zuckerberg has at least made a performance of taking security concerns seriously. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is expected to continue the charm offensive with a Capitol Hill testimony, which CNBC reported Friday could come as soon as next month. “I think the reality now is that so many people use these tools that we can’t wait until we release something to start working on mitigating bad uses of it,” Zuckerberg told Nikkei. “We have to be ahead of that.”
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