Tech Moguls Are In Their Influencer Era

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg hit the headlines — and not for data sharing scandals or child safety issues on Meta. This time, Mark 'The Zuck' Zuckerberg is trying something new. According to major publications such as The Guardian, NBC News, and The New York Times, Zuckerberg is now recording music with US rapper T-Pain. Namely, a saccharine cover of the US rapper's 2008 hit 'Get Low', in which an auto-tuned Zuckerberg croons lyrics too explicit for a newspaper.

Why, you may ask? Well, all in the name of love. The cover, Zuckerberg claims, is a tribute to his wife, who he first met at a party where the 'lyrical masterpiece' was playing. Listening to it as I write, I can promise that Zuckerberg's rendition is barely lyrical, let alone a masterpiece. Nonetheless, half a million people have listened to the track and been presented with the ‘new’ Zuckerberg. These days, the Facebook founder answers questions about his beachy-looking ‘glow up’, making him look like an all-round family guy. It would appear, in fact, that the last thing he wants to appear as is a tech mogul.

This is by no means the only tech entrepreneur to make such a leap. Elon Musk, owner of tech companies X and Tesla, has created his own personality cult. Musk is currently in the news for the accolade of being filmed laughing at memes during a rally for US President-elect Donal Trump. Comments on reposts of this video include “me too, bud” and “bro’s a gem,” which treat Musk more like a friend than a businessman. Musk is a prominent Trump supporter who has handed out cheques of up to $1 million to any registered voter signing a petition supporting “free speech and the right to bear arms.” His chummy persona conceals the fact that he’s more than a fellow passionate voter — he is the richest man in the US, who inevitably has personal interests in whoever becomes the next President.

Like Musk, Zuckerberg’s new image is a successful veil for some of the more concerning things happening at Meta. At the beginning of this year, over 400 individuals in the US filed various cases against social media companies for various forms of harm to children in what is known as a 'master complaint'. Many of these lawsuits were related to bullying, but Meta has recently faced even graver charges concerning child safety, including a Guardian investigation which found that Meta platforms have been used for sex trafficking. Zuckerberg, appearing at a hearing in January, made an apology to the plaintiffs of the master complaint — but only when backed into a corner by Senator Josh Hawley.  All of this is rather stark when considering Meta — and therefore Zuckerberg's — impact. It’s rather difficult to remember, however, when being serenaded with 'Get Low'.

Illustration by Calum Mayor