SourcesFilm 13
Generational Control
On YouTube as “You Have No Idea How Powerful Mark Zuckerberg Really Is”
Corrections and updates
None so far.
Cold open
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Meta’s answer, filed 21 October
A new class of non-voting Class C shares; the filing says Meta’s charter has “no time-based or other sunset provisions, thereby allowing Mr. Zuckerberg to maintain generational control”
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Trump’s book “Save America” on Zuckerberg archived
“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election”
The man nobody can fire
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“Family daily active people (DAP) – DAP was 3.64 billion on average for September 2026”
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“Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share and our Class A common stock has one vote per share” archived
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The one-vote-per-share proposal, “filed by NorthStar Asset Management for 12 consecutive years”, had “88% support in 2025” from outside shareholders, by NorthStar’s count archived
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The dual-class proposal failed: 1,312,681,056 votes for, 3,647,675,248 against
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“AI-glasses units sold, including Ray-Ban Meta … and Oakley Meta …, were above 7 million in the full year” archived
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On his new look: “Mr Steal Your Data is getting a rebrand” archived
The playbook: Australia
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Facing Australia’s bargaining law archived
“attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter”; update of 22 Feb: “the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees” (17 Feb 2021, updated 22 Feb 2021)
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Pages hit by the block included the Bureau of Meteorology, Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services and state health departments; 1800Respect was “stripped of posts for at least part of Thursday” archived
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A whistleblower group accuses Facebook of “deliberately blocking” health and emergency pages “as part of a negotiating tactic”; Meta archived
“categorically and obviously false”, blocked “due to a technical error”
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Facebook switches Australian news back on after “a week-long suspension that began on Thursday, February 18” archived
The playbook: Canada, Europe and the rest
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“In order to comply with the Online News Act, we have begun the process of ending news availability in Canada” (1 Jun 2023, updated 1 Aug 2023) archived
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As wildfires forced the evacuation of tens of thousands in the Northwest Territories, Meta refused to lift its news block in Canada archived
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News still blocked on Facebook and Instagram in Canada; Ottawa “remains open to deal with Meta to restore news” archived
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Without a new transatlantic data framework, “we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe” (filed 3 Feb 2022) archived
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Meta, four days later: “We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe” archived
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The warning, reworded for the new framework archived
Its invalidation could “lead to us being unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe”
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“Local authorities have fined Meta $290 million for regulatory breaches, prompting the social media giant to threaten pulling Facebook and Instagram from the country” archived
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In a New Mexico court filing, Meta said proposed child-safety remedies “could force Meta to shutter its platforms in the state” archived
Prison to partner
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The prison line is a caption under a photo of Trump and Zuckerberg in the Oval Office, in Trump’s book “Save America” archived
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Trump says he likes Zuckerberg “much better now”, believes he is “staying out” of the election archived
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Zuckerberg’s Thanksgiving-eve dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday, 27 November, confirmed by Meta archived
“Mark was grateful for the invitation”
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“Starting in the US, we are ending our third party fact-checking program and moving to a Community Notes model” archived
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“Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump”, according to three people familiar with the matter; Meta gave “$1 million” to the inaugural committee and Zuckerberg had prime seating in the Capitol Rotunda archived
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Trump threatened “substantial” tariffs on digital-tax countries “just days after” Zuckerberg raised the levies at the White House, people familiar said; Trump archived
“I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies”
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Transcript of the White House tech dinner archived
Trump, “How much are you spending, would you say, over the next few years?”; Zuckerberg, “at least $600 billion through ‘28 in the U.S.”
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Meta among the signers of the White House AI accord at the White House on 29 September
The tax
California: the bill
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“billionaires who were residents of California on January 1, 2026 would have to pay a one-time state tax equal to 5 percent of their net worth”; on the 3 November 2026 ballot
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Residency fixed on 1 January 2026; net worth valued on 31 December 2026 (2026, read 23 Oct 2026)
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8 July 2026, to the lead director
“if he needed to pay any such tax by selling down his Class B common stock, the tax liability could be large enough to reduce his voting interest in the Company to approximately 53%”
The threat
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“how the proposition could impact his ability to remain resident in California”; 3 August, a letter from his counsel: he “was considering establishing residence outside of California”; 4 August: “he intended to establish residence outside California, which he had been advised he would need to do before the November 3, 2026 election”; 9 September, at a board dinner: he “planned to list his home in Palo Alto, California, for sale on September 13, 2026”
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The tax falls on “billionaires who were residents of California on January 1, 2026”
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Governor Newsom opposes Proposition 40
A California-only wealth tax would put the state “at a competitive disadvantage”
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Stuart Waldman: “38% of our state budget comes from the top 1% in the state”
Asked for twenty, got the deal
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“an immediate dividend of one share of Class C common stock on each outstanding share of Class A common stock and Class B common stock”, and another on each “Doubling Event” at which the company’s return on the 10 September price is at least 10% a year
2016: he asked before
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“Zuckerberg was set to take the stand on Tuesday, Sept. 26”; his post
“I can fully fund our philanthropy and retain voting control of Facebook for 20 years or more”
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“The Company and/or its insurers shall pay Plaintiffs’ Counsel $68,700,000”
The excuses, and the turn
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6 August, the committee’s offer
A dividend “if, and only if, California Proposition 40 became law and a tax payment by Mr. Zuckerberg became due and payable”; 27 August: “an unqualified dividend (i.e., not conditioned on the enactment of California Proposition 40)”; the final dividend is “contingent upon the filing and effectiveness of the Restated Charter” only
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“the more shares of Class C common stock distributed through a dividend, and therefore the greater liquidity established for Class C common stock, the lower the discount to the Class A common stock was likely to be”, weighed against giving him more shares to sell without losing votes
Who signed, who pays
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Robert Kimmitt, Charles Songhurst, Tony Xu; “Mr. Xu disclosed a personal friendship with Mr. Zuckerberg”; no mention of a Proposition 40 donation; its counsel had represented “Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, LLC (“CZI”), an entity controlled by Mr. Zuckerberg, in one strategic transaction in November 2025, for which it was paid $4 million”
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“Meta stock sinks nearly 7% as AI spend pushes free cash flow negative”
The clock
Interviews and clips quoted
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The broadcast reads Trump’s book
“If he does anything illegal, this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison”
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Mark Zuckerberg in Meta’s video
“we’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world”
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David Lazarus, consumer reporter
“The New York Times says he issued an ultimatum just last month. Cover the potential wealth tax, or Zuckerberg would sell his Palo Alto home and move elsewhere”
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Jonas Kron, Trillium Asset Management
“a really quite deep well of concern about the concentration of power in one individual like we see with Mark Zuckerberg”
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AnhPhu Nguyen, Harvard student: “built glasses that let you identify anybody on the street”
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Josh Frydenberg, Treasurer of Australia
“Facebook was wrong. Facebook’s actions were unnecessary. They were heavy-handed and they will damage its reputation”
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Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia
“the idea of shutting down the sort of sites they did yesterday as some sort of threat, well I know how Australians react to that”
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Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
“Facebook is putting corporate profits ahead of our democracy and our well-being”
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“Probably.”
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“The president signaled that the litigation had to be resolved before Zuckerberg could be quote unquote brought into the tent”
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Donald Trump at the White House tech dinner
“How much are you spending, would you say, over the next few years?”
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Mark Zuckerberg: “at least $600 billion through ‘28 in the U.S.”
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Donald Trump: “It’s a lot. Thank you, Mark. It’s great to have you.”
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Facebook “used its Irish subsidiary where it would be subject to a very low corporate income tax rate to move profits from places like the US and Germany and France and Japan”
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“It’s only taxed when they sell and they often don’t sell. They borrow to fund their lifestyle.”
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Steve Maviglio, political strategist
“Everybody wants to tax billionaires, but what if they leave? It’s the scare and the possibilities, the game of chicken”
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“And if those people moved, and some of them already have, it would have a drastic impact on our state budget”
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Ed Ludlow: “a new class of stock, Class C shares that have economic value but no voting power”
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Class C gives him “a mechanism where he can get liquidity by selling them without diluting his voting power”
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“in return he has committed to stay in California or wherever Meta keeps its headquarters for the next eight years while he remains its full-time leader”
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Frances Haugen, Facebook whistleblower
“he didn’t ask for just enough to pay his 5% wealth tax, he’s made it so that over the next eight years, he can cash out tens of billions of dollars and still maintain complete control over the company”
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Frances Haugen on the 2016–17 plan
“you either get to be the king or you get to be rich. You don’t get to be both”
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“it is not the right time for Zuckerberg to go on the stand to defend ultimate control of the company”
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“I think if I sold this company, I’d just go build another company like this. And I kind of like the one I have.”
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“there’s a new class of shares that’s been issued and there’s concern that it’s going to be more dilution coming ahead”
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Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
“I don’t mind paying taxes. The more you make, the more taxes you pay.”
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Ray Madoff, Boston College Law School
“the richest Americans have been written out of the tax system, much like the aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France”