by intern Carly Maltzman
Photo credit: Andrew Dubbs
On Wednesday, September 18th, The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief James Bennet conducted an interview with Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg at The Newseum in DC. The interview primarily focused on Zuckerberg’s standpoint on immigration reform, his visit to D.C., and the recent dispute with the NSA.
James Bennet and Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg spoke about his firm beliefs in education philanthropy. While teaching an after-school class in California on entrepreneurship, his passion for immigration reform grew: “My top student raised his hand and said, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be going to college because I’m undocumented’ and that just blew my mind.” Zuckerberg’s organization FWD.us lobbies for comprehensive immigration reform and aspires to have “key leaders in the tech community promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy.”
The Atlantic‘s James Bennet, Mark Zuckerberg and David Bradley, owner of Atlantic Media
During Zuckerberg’s visit to D.C., he will meet with congressional Democrats and Republicans to further discuss immigration issues and lobby members of Congress on the issues of his advocacy group. “The purpose of this trip is largely for immigration and not for Facebook,” he said. Zuckerberg values high skills and education and believes the country’s economic growth relies on such reforms: “Eleven million people is a lot of people who are being treated unfairly right now,” he said.
Even NBC’s Meet the Press host David Gregory was in the audience
When asked which side of the political spectrum he stands on, he slyly responded, “I’m pro-knowledge economy.” He elaborated: “A knowledge economy is when me knowing something doesn’t stop anyone else from knowing it. If you have an idea, I can benefit from that and it ends up being positive.” Zuckerberg’s organization is neither Democrat nor Republican, but incorporates both sides of the political spectrum.
Following Zuckerberg’s discussion on immigration, he was asked about the controversy with the National Security Agency. He said Facebook users have lost trust due to the NSA’s recent discoveries on surveillance programs: “There are lots of times where we’ll put a statement out or someone will criticize us in the press over privacy, and that stuff doesn’t move the needle too much regarding trust. The NSA stuff did.” Facebook wants to be able to reveal information about the amount of data the NSA collects from them, and in turn, is suing the United States. He believes it is people’s rights to know about government programs and what they are doing, “The more transparent they are about what their doing, the more the public will be comfortable with it.”
Lastly, Zuckerberg opened the last 15 minutes to the audience. He was asked about cyber bullying, the future of the web and Facebook and his D.C. trip. The revolutionary entreprenuer continues to connect people and further the technology world with his brilliant creation: Facebook.
