Mark Zuckerberg: “Nah, f*ck that”. Meta’s mouthpiece still isn’t a fan of closed platforms

• “One of my things for the next 10 or 15 years is to make sure we can build the fundamental technology that we’re going to be building social experiences on.”

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Call it being high on life or simply the result of being in good company but Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently made an unexpectedly colourful and unusual verbal slip when describing his ongoing attitudes to closed platforms and anyone planning on getting in his or Meta’s way.

Speaking on a panel at this year’s SIGGRAPH conference in Denver with hot-right-now ‘Mr AI’ and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the usually stoically corporate Zuck let down his guard to explain his ongoing stance as regards adhering to the rules laid down by platform providers and them preventing him from producing the product that he would like on those platforms – “Nah, f*ck that,” explained Zuckerberg succinctly. 

At the session entitled ‘AI and the next computing platforms’ Zuckerberg said: “One of my things for the next 10 or 15 years is I just want to make sure we can build the fundamental technology that we’re going to be building social experiences on,” he said. “Because there have just been too many things that I’ve tried to build and then have just been told, ‘Nah, you can’t really build that,’ by the platform provider that, at some level, I’m just like, ‘Nah, fuck that.’”

100% freedom 100% of the time… Or nothing

The stance is, of course, unsurprising with Facebook – Meta’s first full-scale foray into the world of platforms – being famously independent of every platform holder’s constraints and able to offer an identical service regardless of where it’s accessed.

It can be argued that Facebook’s success – transitioning from a website into an app and platform in its own right – has set the scene for countless apps and services to follow, giving rise to the (relatively) unchecked and unimpeded social media to-and-fro of today.

Indeed, Meta arguably became the benchmark for when a platform holder such as Apple or Google can safely (and legally) step in and have their say (or take a cut) or when, in everyone’s best interests, they simply have to put aside personal gains and wave it through. Others, it seems, have not been so lucky.

Zuck’s comment comes as testimony to the company’s more recent (and hugely expensive) plans regarding the Metaverse that have required the company to build out its own hardware and software and run its own closed system to provide what it wants. Ironically, Oculus is 100% Meta’s own platform with the company ‘enjoying’ all the power and control that he clearly abhors from his rivals. 

Prior to that, of course, the company even went so far as to introduce its own (unsuccessful) video conferencing and phone hardware in order to circumvent any attempt to be thwarted by its rivals.

AI by their own rules

It’s clear that Zuckerberg is adamant that any further expansion of their services – be it in the fields of AI, VR, AI or their ongoing Metaverse dreams – be similarly allowed to flourish rather than ever step in line with someone else’s master plan.

With AI becoming an increasingly important aspect in tomorrow’s tech it’s safe to say that Meta – as it has always done – will continue to forge its own path. As to what that will involve and how much it will cost them is anyone’s guess.