Facebook’s newly announced cryptocurrency Libra continues to face backlash, this time from Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
He explains how Facebook is vying for control, trying (and failing) to dominate the media:
To take over society is three legs of a stool: First you get control of the media, then you get control of the money and that leads to control of the military. Facebook has not done a great job of taking control of the media … Do we really want to give them control of the economy and our money right now? Buyer beware.
He argued that Facebook’s 2.4 billion users positions Libra to be adopted by a much wider audience than other cryptocurrencies.
This could mean that Libra has a shot at becoming the new default currency like the dollar or the euro, Galloway said, which could have serious implications for the global economy because it would not be managed by a central bank like traditional currencies.
Galloway called on the regulators in the United States to respond to Libra. He said that if anything goes wrong with Project Libra – the regulators will be at fault for not reacting in time.
He said that lawmakers have done a poor job so far at regulating Facebook and that Libra is a chance to course-correct.
“I think you’re naturally seeing what I would call a well deserved and well-earned gag reflex around this idea,” Galloway said.
They’re trying to do everything right: Set up an independent body in Switzerland, make it a nonprofit. But there’s one problem … it comes from Facebook. And people just are like, ‘Burn me a million times, shame on you, burn me a million and one times, shame on me.’
