We can put all the rumors surrounding this topic to rest for the final time. There should be no confusion left after we tell you that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg isn’t planning to run for President. Not in 2020, and not anytime soon. The development has been confirmed by the man himself to BuzzFeed News.
When questioned about his current plans for the Presidency, Zuckerberg straight out replied with a big fat NO. But one can also go and delve into the semantics to say that he didn’t explicitly deny that he would never run for President. And yeah, that’s true. But the founder and chief executive of the largest social community has his hands full with other responsibilities. Talking about the same, he further went on to add,
I’m focused on building our community at Facebook and working on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, for those unaware, is an ambitious project launched by the Facebook founder and his wife Priscilla Chan back in 2015. The primary goal of this limited-liability corporation is to advance human potential and promote equality among prominent sectors of the society. It is also aimed at making resources easily available for education and other scientific research. It has just recently completed its very first acquisition in the form of scientific search engine Meta. And it now plans to make the same available for free to all.
Now, let’s circle back to how the hubbub around Zuckerberg running for Presidency in America catch heat. This all started when Facebook’s founder revealed that he would travel to all 50 states and speak to the members of the community as his personal 2017 goal. This was further complemented with him fighting to stop govt service from being considered a voluntary service and distancing himself from atheism. Then, there were speculations that he can become a member of the government for two years while running a technology giant. But those turned out to be completely false.
These speculations then gained some expert treatment and TechCrunch surfaced a report saying that Zuckerberg could run for President. It said that other publications had misinterpreted the limitations of his ability to join the government. The report further added that though he is currently being restricted to a maximum of two years of service but that is false. It mentioned that if “he owns more than 30% of the Facebook stock he did when he signed the stock reclassification agreement, or he has board approval, he can serve indefinitely in government while still controlling Facebook.”
But, it seems Zuckerberg isn’t at all interest in meddling with political affairs. He is currently engrossed in further uplifting the technological development standards of Facebook and philanthropy through CZI. Sources close to Zuckerberg have told BuzzFeed that the Facebook CEO already has his political hands full with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. And that is no hidden fact as he has recently hired David Plouffe from Uber to head it’s policy and advocacy team. Plouffe was also the campaign manager for former American President Obama.
So, it is safe to say that Zuckerberg isn’t currently planning to interfere in the odd political ecosystem of the country. With the appointment of Donald Trump, the populace of United States is plagued with mass political uncertainity at the moment. While everyone is trying to make sense of the scenario, the Facebook CEO is planning to focus only on his company and community welfare.
