We treated Zuck like a pariah and it was disgraceful

Facebook boss deserved a better welcome...

NEVER AFRAID TO TACKLE THE STORIES THAT MATTER

Why was one of Ireland’s biggest employers treated like a pariah when he visited this country this week? The sight of Mark Zuckerberg being unceremoniously bundled around Dublin by a private group of minders was, to say the least, embarrassing.

Where was the handwritten letter from the Taoiseach inviting one of the most powerful men in the world to drop across the road from the Merrion hotel to say hello to at least one Government minister?

Or are those billet-doux reserved for has-been Australian soap star singers?

Where were the Garda outriders so beloved of every EU official who blesses us with his presence? Watching the security cavalcade that cleared the streets of Dublin ten days ago for Donald Tusk was instructive. I glimpsed his face in the back of one on the Mercedes in the convoy and it was obvious he was, to say the least, bemused by the kerfuffle around him!

Does anyone remember Monday May 23, 2011, when the whole country shut down for a visit from Michelle and Barack Obama, where he uttered the immortal words, ‘Is féidir linn’ and we all went weak at the knees! It was Obama’s Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who threw Ireland over the economic cliff when he insisted that Ireland alone take the €85billion hit for the banking crash – and repay every single bond holder. Obviously the effect of Obama’s pint of Guinness in Moneygall didn’t last very long and endear him to Ireland.

Mark Zuckerberg has created 7,000 jobs in Ireland – and it is rising dramatically. His businesses has transformed a derelict part of the capital – aptly called Misery Hill – into a thriving dockland.

There are now three billion

users of Facebook – and it’s free. I’m not a devotee myself but most of my friends thrive on it. Facebook has done more good than harm: it has transformed the world, reuniting friends, families and creating a greater sense of community.

It was fascinating to listen to one of the three TDs who actually asked to meet the Facebook founder in the Merrion Hotel opposite Government buildings. One Fianna Fáil TD in attendance was over the moon meeting such a ‘famous’ man and of course took the opportunity to take a selfie! Though in fairness, James Lawless TD, who has a background in computers described Zuckerberg as an ‘unassuming techie’, adding that he seemed surprised by the unstoppable growth of the company he founded at university 20 years ago.

Much of the criticism of Facebook is that it is not properly ‘regulated’. But with three billion users how could anyone provide the resources to check everything – for example in India alone there are 22 official languages written in 13 different scripts with over 720 dialects! On the contentious issues of Russia interfering with elections, the culprit here is Putin not Zuckerberg.

It was a far-right lunatic who shot fifty innocent people and seriously injured 39 in a mosque in New Zealand a month ago – but much of the blame afterwards was focused on Facebook for not taking the sick video which the killer made down quick enough.

I know we all need someone to blame for all the ills of the world. Zuckerberg is the current pariah, but Ireland treats him like dirt at our peril.