Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has called for Facebook to be broken up in a recent interview with CNN. Benioff took specific issue with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the law that shields Facebook and other social media platforms from legal liability. Benioff called Section 230 “the most dangerous law on the books right now,” calling for it to be “abolished.”
CNN reports that during a recent interview with CNN reporter Poppy Harlow, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff once against expressed his distaste for social media platform Facebook and called for the company to be broken up. Benioff has long been a critic of Facebook, famously stating at one point that Facebook is the “new cigarettes” and should be regulated as such.
In his most recent interview, Benioff stated: “It’s addictive, it’s not good for you, they’re after your kids, they’re running political ads that aren’t true … and they’re also acquiring other companies and co-mingling [data those companies have on their users] into theirs,” referencing Facebook’s acquisition of image-sharing app Instagram.
Benioff added: “And I think at that point, because they’re now doing that, that they probably should be broken up. Because they’re having an undue influence as the largest social media platform on the planet.” Benioff also stated that shortly after his comments comparing Facebook to cigarettes he had received a call from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg but declined to say what sort of conversation took place between the two.
The Salesforce.com CEO took specific issue with Section 230. He said, “the most dangerous law on the books right now,” saying that in his opinion, it should be “abolished.”
“We’re in a world where very advanced technologies are at our fingertips, and where we can do magical things,” Benioff said. “But that also means that trust must be our highest value. And you have to ask yourself: Is trust your highest value? If it’s not your highest value, then what is it?”
Benioff specifically took issue with Facebook’s recent decision to run political advertisements from the Trump campaign which allegedly contained false claims. Benioff stated that there was “no question” he would run such advertisements if he was in control of Facebook.
“I think this is extremely important in the age of social media, because they have the information of who those persuadables are, and various political organizations are targeting those groups,” he said. “That’s the insight from the 2016 election. It’s a very vulnerable moment right now.”
Read more of Benioff’s interview with CNN here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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