PLATELL'S PEOPLE: US Robber Barons look like angels compared to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

When asked some years ago about his vision for the future, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said with pious zeal: ‘The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open and connected.’

Last year he was even more evangelical, saying he wanted ‘to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together . . . to build a global community that works for all of us . . . make a lot of things in the world better’.

This week, we discovered in shocking detail precisely how Zuckerberg has been making the world better.

He turned a blind eye as ‘tens of thousands of app developers’ hoovered up and sold the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users, data Zuckerberg had pledged to protect. The web giant’s takings as this went on between 2009 and 2015 soared by nearly £13 billion.

US Robber Barons look like angels compared to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, says AMANDA PLATELL

US Robber Barons look like angels compared to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, says AMANDA PLATELL

Well, the world certainly got better for Zuckerberg — he became a multi-billionaire.

He did so by unscrupulously milking Facebook customers, turning it into an internet platform where rules don’t exist, where paedophiles ply their evil trade, terrorists recruit and instruct killers, fake news abounds, intimidation by trolls and malign forces is endemic, democracy is undermined and where, as we learned with growing horror this week, there’s an arrogant disdain for privacy.

Along with Zuckerberg’s unscrupulous greed, there’s his cowardice. Following the data-mining scandal, he disappeared for days. Only when the scale of the calamity it had caused Facebook became apparent — £35 billion wiped off the firm’s value in two days — did he make a statement.

He admitted there had been mistakes, that changes were needed — but still refused to apologise.

On top of greed and cowardice, we can add hypocrisy. Zuckerberg has relentlessly paraded his moral credentials, giving money to education projects, pledging billions to charities. He even called for a global tax on all workers to provide a universal basic income for all men and women.

Yet Facebook does all it can to shelter its billions from the taxman. In 2016 in the UK, it paid just £5.1 million corporation tax on a profit of £58.4 million, a rate of less than 10 per cent.

Zuckerberg makes the infamous U.S. Robber Barons of the 19th century, men such as oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, and transport king Cornelius Vanderbilt — who built fortunes often by questionable means — look like vicars at a tea party.

He is nothing more than a ruthless, money-grabbing, tax-avoiding impostor. There is only one weapon we have to fight back: Facebook customers can delete their accounts. Use it!

Along with Zuckerberg¿s unscrupulous greed, there¿s his cowardice. Following the data-mining scandal, he disappeared for days

Along with Zuckerberg’s unscrupulous greed, there’s his cowardice. Following the data-mining scandal, he disappeared for days

 

Presumed dead in The Last Jedi, veteran actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, wants to return in the next Star Wars movie as a ghost. May the purse be with you, Mark.

 

Top answer from LeBlanc

As Joey in Friends, Matt LeBlanc made millions. His life then unravelled, he divorced, hit rock bottom — and now he’s back presenting Top Gear and starring in the TV hit series Episodes. 

Of his current success, he says: ‘It’s just a job. I turn up, do it and then I’m off. The pay cheque is probably the most important part.’

No whingeing, no emotional journeys. Joey couldn’t have put it better.

Of his current success, Matt LeBlanc says: ¿It¿s just a job. I turn up, do it and then I¿m off. The pay cheque is probably the most important part¿

Of his current success, Matt LeBlanc says: ‘It’s just a job. I turn up, do it and then I’m off. The pay cheque is probably the most important part’

 

A gorgeously giggling Duchess of Cambridge performed her final royal duty before taking time off to have her baby next month. Despite a horribly difficult early pregnancy and being bigger than she was with her first two children, Kate has recently been glowing. Good luck to her. I can’t wait to see her with a beautiful new baby cradled in her arms.

 

The father of the British woman who died fighting with the Kurds in Syria accuses the Government of failing to help repatriate her body. Anna Campbell willingly sacrificed her life. It’s a bit rich to expect the taxpayer to bring her home. 

 

Three of Prince Harry’s serious ex-girlfriends are believed to be among the 600 people invited to the wedding. Lucky he didn’t invite all his exes or they’d need the Royal Albert Hall. 

 

Exercise Klasses

Myleene Klass is promoting her new fitness DVD in the face of trolls who object to the 39-year-old mum of two constantly appearing in next to nothing, or indeed nothing, to promote herself. 

‘Your opinions do not pay my mortgage,’ she retorts. Fair enough. My concern is how she expects anyone to ride an exercise bike — in six-inch stilettos.

Myleene Klass is promoting her new fitness DVD in the face of trolls who object to the 39-year-old mum of two constantly appearing in next to nothing, or indeed nothing, to promote herself

Myleene Klass is promoting her new fitness DVD in the face of trolls who object to the 39-year-old mum of two constantly appearing in next to nothing, or indeed nothing, to promote herself

 

Ant McPartlin disproves the old adage that addicts only really hurt themselves. While I feel sadness for him, he abandoned his desolate wife who stood by him, devastated his mother who raised him single-handedly and has probably wrecked the career of his lifelong pal Dec Donnelly. Let’s hope when he recovers, Ant realises it’s not all about him.

 

We always associate weight loss with betrayed women but Colin Firth’s first appearance since news of wife Livia’s affair broke tells the other side of adultery. Pride And Prejudice’s once handsome, wet-shirted Mr Darcy, looks grey and gaunt. The poor man has aged a decade in a few months. 

 

They’ve broken up before, but former One Direction boy band member Zayn Malik has finally split from his model girlfriend Gigi Hadid. How do we know it’s really over this time? Zayn ‘unfollowed’ Gigi on Instagram. It reminds me of when Phil Collins reportedly dumped his wife by fax in the Eighties. Proving that while technology changes, some blokes will NEVER know how to treat women.

 

Breaking with tradition, again, Kensington Palace reveals the right-on maker of Meghan and Harry’s wedding cake. A royal observer said it has ‘Meghan written all over it’. The baker is a bohemian ex-market stall owner and the cake an ethically sourced lemon and elderflower sponge with buttercream to reflect the couple’s values of ‘food provenance and sustainability’. Pass the organic sick bag!

 

A Playboy Playmate claims she had a ten-month affair with Donald Trump, which he denies. 

Karen McDougal, 47, says it was months after Melania gave birth to their son and she was hurt when he offered her money after they had sex on their first date. 

McDougal told CNN she was ‘not that kind of girl’ but says she did accept a New York apartment from him for the duration of their alleged affair. 

Perhaps she was that kind of girl after all.

Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, 47, claims she had a ten-month affair with Donald Trump, which he denies

Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, 47, claims she had a ten-month affair with Donald Trump, which he denies

 

Ahead of Elton John’s three-year, 300-date farewell tour, Rod Stewart says The Rocket Man’s Yellow Brick Road extravaganza ‘stinks of selling tickets’ and ‘is not rock ’n’ roll’. When was elderly Elt last a rocker? I saw him at The O2 Arena a decade ago and he couldn’t hit a note then — he was all crock ’n’ roll. Time to Let The Sun Go Down On You, Elton.

 

Westminster wars...

+ HOME Secretary Amber Rudd rubber-stamped the deal giving a French firm the contract to make Britain’s new blue passports. She didn’t see the names of the bidders and chose on the recommendation of her civil servants. Such sensitive decisions should be made by our elected representatives, not unelected mandarins who have their own often anti-British, pro EU political agenda.

+ HARRIET Harman wants candidates for the next Labour leadership election to come from a women-only shortlists, just as there are calls within the party to allow men transitioning to women to be included on such lists. So blokes can join the race after all — as long as they pop on a bit of lippy and false eyelashes.