NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

Internet roasts 'alien' Mark Zuckerberg as Facebook memes get even weirder

news.com.au
12 Apr, 2018 01:51 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is undergoing a two-day congressional inquisition that will be very public — and possibly pivotal for the massive social networking company he created.

What else would you expect from a Facebook event?

The memes and one-liners were coming thick and fast as "alien" Mark Zuckerberg spent a second day deflecting bitter accusations about his company's massive power — and internet speculation on whether he was really human reached fever pitch.

Jim Carrey posted a cartoon drawing of the social network boss as an extraterrestrial visiting from "planet Zuckerberg" to destroy Earth. The actor has been among the most vocal celebrity #deleteFacebook campaigners, announcing in February that he was dumping his shares in the company because it had "profited" from alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Last month, Carrey tweeted another Zuckerberg sketch with a thumbs-down and the caption, "Who are you sharing your life with? #regulatefacebook" after the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal.

#Zuckerberg not human confirmed#WednesdayWisdom pic.twitter.com/oxbRGU16CX

— Keque🌽 (@Keque_Mage) April 11, 2018
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Congress gets a visit from planet Zuckerberg. “I shall prevent any further election meddling by destroying the Earth with my Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator App! The sudden drop in Facebook’s stock has made me angry! VERY ANGRY INDEED!!!” pic.twitter.com/qwCpJoUqnS

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) April 11, 2018

"Is everyone just gonna pretend they didn't notice that an alien is currently inhabiting Mark Zuckerberg's body," tweeted TV star Jimmy Tatro.

Many remarked on the unlikely symmetry of the Facebook CEO's face and his implacable calm in the face of hours of questioning from ageing politicians about the internet's most basic functions.

His five-hour grilling in the House of Representatives overnight was far tougher than the questioning he faced from the Senate yesterday — but Wall Street seemed satisfied, with Facebook's shares soaring upwards.

Mr Zuckerberg came out on top for the second day running, this time not simply because his questioners barely knew what Facebook was, but by dint of sheer endurance.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

If you had an off switch, Senator, would you not keep it secret?#Zuckerberg pic.twitter.com/BhJ2dA2Ysj

— Elise Swain (@eliseswain) April 11, 2018

"They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching. They'll see. They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, 'Why, he wouldn't even harm a fly...'" pic.twitter.com/FtPt54N2gb

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 10, 2018

Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t slept since MySpace pic.twitter.com/njLhS0NbM9

— Mark Zuckerberg Memes (@ZuckerbergMemes) April 10, 2018

Many were left wondering what had really been promised or achieved, with Mr Zuckerberg regularly saying he would have to have his team look into certain questions, and refusing to commit to protecting users' data as far as he possibly could.

The Facebook boss regularly alluded to his company's modest roots in a Harvard dorm room, and said he would be open to regulation, as long as that didn't harm small start-ups.

But many viewers were wryly conscious that this was the powerful, multi-billionaire chairman of a company with two billion users worldwide.

The 33-year-old was quizzed on privacy, censorship and transparency, with members of the House of Representatives not holding back in their onslaught. But Mr Zuckerberg remained remarkably composed as he was berated for the social giant's mistakes and "long history of apologies".

Discover more

Business

Day two: Zuckerberg's own data was sold to 'malicious third parties'

11 Apr 06:11 PM
Business

What Zuckerberg's private notes really said

11 Apr 10:04 PM
Media and marketing

Watch: Zuckerberg's grilling summarised in three minutes

11 Apr 11:23 PM
Business

Zuckerberg: 10 hours of questions, $4b extra

12 Apr 12:00 AM

"Now, Mr. Zuckerberg, is the Constitution a 'face book?'" pic.twitter.com/zCNStn3DKm

— jordan (@JordanUhl) April 11, 2018

It must be fun being Zuckerberg and knowing you have dick pics of 63% of all the people questioning you, and can unleash them at any time.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 11, 2018

Live pictures as Mark Zuckerberg grilled by Congress: pic.twitter.com/ZfbXY8dFCK

— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) April 11, 2018

For the second day running, he was also probed on whether Facebook listened to users' conversations through their smartphone's microphone. Congressman Larry Bucshon gave examples of times when he and people he knew had been served suspiciously relevant ads.

"My understanding is that a lot of these cases that you're talking about are a coincidence," Mr Zuckerberg said, insisting that neither Facebook or its competitors listen to unauthorised audio.

That hasn't dampened the paranoia of the tech world, however, with one Twitter user captioning a Zuckerberg photo with a quote from Psycho. Others observed that Zuck would either need a drink or a hearty round of untagging after his ten-hour marathon.

It's certainly been fun. But has the joking around distracted from the reality of how Facebook is eroding our privacy, allowing the purchase of our data and exposing our democracy to exploitation?

Perhaps only our new alien overlords really know.

gonna have to untag a lot of photos pic.twitter.com/Ni3Bnskhba

— Kevin Townsend (@kevinstownsend) April 10, 2018

All around me are familiar facebooks, worn out facebooks, worn out facebooooks pic.twitter.com/71aTFUZcXs

— Real Lies (@_real_lies) April 10, 2018

THE FACEBOOK
DRINKING GAME

Every time
Mark Zuckerberg says
"I started this company
in my dorm room"
20 minutes in and TWICE#CHEERS

— 🇺🇸🇺🇸 Miguelifornia (@michaelbeatty3) April 10, 2018

Mr. Zuckerberg, My VCR is flashing 12:00 please help

— donna3434 (@NYGirl5757) April 10, 2018

That face when you just wanted a faster way to rank girls by looks and ended up installing a fascist government in the most powerful country on earth pic.twitter.com/VEaQjz9Z6s

— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) April 10, 2018
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Premium
Media Insider

Noise ban, off-limit interviews: TVNZ's rules as RNZ moves in; Ad agencies take aim at global merger

09 May 10:58 AM
Premium
Tourism

'Nothing was going to stop me': Pioneer who built ski resort from scratch sells up

09 May 07:00 AM
Premium
Shares

Market close: NZ sharemarket rises as gentailers make gains

09 May 06:03 AM

“Not an invisible footprint”: Why technology supply chains need optimising

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

Premium
Noise ban, off-limit interviews: TVNZ's rules as RNZ moves in; Ad agencies take aim at global merger

Noise ban, off-limit interviews: TVNZ's rules as RNZ moves in; Ad agencies take aim at global merger

09 May 10:58 AM

Untimely deaths of 3 respected NZ journalists; NZME set to take on Trade Me for car sales.

Premium
'Nothing was going to stop me': Pioneer who built ski resort from scratch sells up

'Nothing was going to stop me': Pioneer who built ski resort from scratch sells up

09 May 07:00 AM
Premium
Market close: NZ sharemarket rises as gentailers make gains

Market close: NZ sharemarket rises as gentailers make gains

09 May 06:03 AM
Premium
'Very happy': Jim Grenon to join NZME board with Steven Joyce in peace deal that ends bitter battle

'Very happy': Jim Grenon to join NZME board with Steven Joyce in peace deal that ends bitter battle

09 May 05:42 AM
Deposit scheme reduces risk, boosts trust – General Finance
sponsored

Deposit scheme reduces risk, boosts trust – General Finance

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP