Crusade amass Freedom from Facebook dissented at a congressional hearing this week by holding up a picture of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg as a two-headed octopus.
It was a trick intended to bring issues to light for Freedom from Facebook's central goal to separate Facebook and make it more responsible.
Coordinator Sarah Miller said the gathering intends to battle Facebook for whatever length of time that it takes to realize change, disclosing to Business Insider that the strength of majority rule government relies upon it.
Opportunity from Facebook has a few coalition accomplices, including the Communications Workers of America association, while 10,000 individuals have marked its request of to the Federal Trade Commission.
Monika Bickert was in the witness stand ready to give evidence to Congress. As one of Facebook's most senior executives, she was about to be grilled by the House Judiciary Committee on fake news and content filtering.
Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, began delivering her opening remarks when at least four protestors held aloft signs featuring an image of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg as a two-headed octopus. Moments later, the protestors walked out.
The bizarre moment piqued interest, with journalists following the congressional hearing, including BuzzFeed's Ryan Mac, writing about the incident. As it turned out, it was the latest stunt to be organised Freedom from Facebook, a campaign group that wants to break up the social network.
TECH
FINANCE
POLITICS
STRATEGY
LIFE
INTELLIGENCE
ALL
BI ACCOUNTS
BUSINESS INSIDER
BI PRIME
BI INTELLIGENCE
EDITION
Meet the campaigners who say they will stop at nothing in their quest to break up Facebook
Jake Kanter 22m
Monika Bickert
Facebook's Monika Bickert gives evidence to the House Judiciary Committee. House Judiciary Committee/YouTube
Campaign group Freedom from Facebook protested at a congressional hearing this week by holding up an image of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg as a two-headed octopus.
It was a stunt designed to raise awareness for Freedom from Facebook's mission to break up Facebook and make it more accountable.
Organiser Sarah Miller said the group plans to fight Facebook for as long as it takes to bring about change, telling Business Insider that the health of democracy depends on it.
Freedom from Facebook has several coalition partners, including the Communications Workers of America union, while 10,000 people have signed its petition to the Federal Trade Commission.
Monika Bickert was in the witness stand ready to give evidence to Congress. As one of Facebook's most senior executives, she was about to be grilled by the House Judiciary Committee on fake news and content filtering.
Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, began delivering her opening remarks when at least four protestors held aloft signs featuring an image of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg as a two-headed octopus. Moments later, the protestors walked out.
The bizarre moment piqued interest, with journalists following the congressional hearing, including BuzzFeed's Ryan Mac, writing about the incident. As it turned out, it was the latest stunt to be organised Freedom from Facebook, a campaign group that wants to break up the social network.
Freedom from Facebook is a coalition of privacy and anti-monopoly advocacy groups, essentially born out of the Open Markets Institute in May. It counts at least nine other groups among its coalition and last week added its most powerful ally yet: The Communications Workers of America union, which represents 700,000 US workers.
Sarah Miller, the deputy director of the Open Markets Institute and spokeswoman for Freedom from Facebook, said the group was created in the heat of Cambridge Analytica scandal, which started "animating groups that we'd never seen have any sort of shared mission."
Flexibility from Facebook has three key goals: Separating Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger; driving Facebook to be interoperable with contending informal communities; and acquainting solid security rules with ensure Facebook clients.
"Stamp Zuckerberg has to an extreme degree a lot of intensity, his own particular investors called him a despot," Miller said. "The arrangement of positions that we're putting forth are coming back to a more mindful, sensible business as usual."
In excess of 10,000 individuals have marked its request of to the Federal Trade Commission, while Miller is in chats with a few different associations to join the battle.
They expect to add to the FTC's open hearings on rivalry and shoppers over the coming months. It is the first run through the FTC a led such a discussion in over 20 years.
Mill operator would not uncover Freedom from Facebook's budgetary sponsor, trusting that secrecy is essential when "we go up probably the most great associations." She focused, in any case, that the coalition is in it for the whole deal.
"This is certainly not a tiny blip on the radar issue, we are focused on completing this activity, and we feel like the strength of our popular government relies upon it," Miller included.
She said the EU's record $5 billion fine of Google this week over its manhandle of Android demonstrates a developing craving to handle the predominance of Silicon Valley mammoths. It is an issue of "when not if" Facebook will confront investigation, Miller said.
In this way, you can hope to see more dissents like the one in Congress this week, regardless of whether it pulled in consideration for the wrong reasons. A few eyewitnesses proposed that the octopus picture, with CEO Zuckerberg and COO Sandberg, was hostile to Semitic, given comparable symbolism was utilized as a part of Nazi publicity. Both Zuckerberg and Sandberg are Jewish.
Mill operator said the architect, Eddie Vale, is Jewish himself and there was "no goal" for it to be hostile to Semitic. She said the plan was a "riff" on the great Standard Oil toon by Joseph Keppler.
Facebook declined to comment, but pointed Business Insider to quotes in Axios when Freedom from Facebook launched. The company argued that regulators reviewed Facebook's acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram and concluded they didn't harm competition.
And speaking on to Recode's Kara Swisher this week, Zuckerberg made the case against Facebook being broken up. He said clipping the wings of firms like Facebook would open the door to companies from countries like China to fill the void. Companies which "do not share the values that we have," Zuckerberg said, and would not be willing to cooperate when things go wrong for US users.
You can bet that if the government hears word that it's election interference or terrorism, I don't think Chinese companies are going to wanna cooperate as much and try to aid the national interest there," he said.
SEE ALSO: Facebook's testimony before Congress started with a surprise as 3 protesters held up posters showing Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg as a 2-headed octopus wrapped around the world