Saturday Night Live called out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a “Weekend Update” skit this week, and the iconic comedy show made its feelings about the Silicon Valley billionaire pretty clear.
Depicting Zuckerberg as a socially awkward executive with an air of arrogance when it comes to his company’s data privacy crisis with Cambridge Analytica and mishandling of user’s personal information, Zuckerberg was played by comedian Alex Moffat, who, of course, was wearing the Zuck’s signature gray T-shirt.
Kicking off his interview with host Colin Jost, Moffat as Zuckerberg was smugly pleased with himself for being able to maintain eye contact throughout a normal human interaction.
“Begin eye contact — two, three and away,” Moffat’s Zuckerberg said. “Nailed it.”
When Jost pointedly asked him whether or not he would resign from Facebook, as many people are calling on him to do, Zuckerberg’s character let out a shrill and incredulous laugh.
“So users will be able to delete their data?” asks Jost.
“No,” Moffat deadpans.
“Why not?” Jost pushes.
“Because it’s mine. You gave it to me. No backsies,” exclaims Moffat’s Zuckerberg. “And if you don’t like it you can ‘Zuck’ it. HA!”
While clearly a riff on the embattled social media company’s ongoing privacy scandal, the skit hit close to home for many viewers who are unhappy with the company’s handling of their personal information. The sketch did have lighter moments, with Moffat physically poking Jost and reminding him that Facebook’s poking feature was “flirting for cowards.”
But overall, the sketch hit the nail on the head when it came to mocking Zuckerberg’s attitude and handling of Facebook’s current data controversy.
“Sure, maybe Facebook sold out our democracy to Russian troll farms. My bad?” Moffat says as Zuckerberg, without a hint of remorse.
As CEO of Facebook, which is the world’s largest social media company, Zuckerberg will testify before Congress on April 11 to answer questions about the unfolding scandal, which has affected at least 87 million users so far.
