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Andreessen Apologizes for Snarky Tweet About India

posted by takyon on Thursday February 11 2016, @05:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the commonwealth-navigator dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

That businessman/reality TV star who just won the New Hampshire primary is far from the only famous person addicted to sharing his current thoughts and mood on Twitter. When you do that, you're bound to eventually make a mistake that has consequences. This time it was Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and co-founder of Netscape (and lead developer for the Mosaic Web browser before that), who got busted for tweeting a thought that shouldn't have left the hotel bar:

Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?

Indians complained; evidently they've grown accustomed to having their own country. It was noticed that Andreessen sits on the board of Facebook, which has been unsuccessfully trying to peddle free Internet service (featuring Facebook, of course) to India for awhile. Oops. Mark Zuckerberg wasn't pleased.

Andreessen, a master of the multi-part tweet, quickly backpedaled. And the original tweet was deleted.

takyon: The Register's Andrew Orlowski has a partial defense of Andreessen's comments that you may find illuminating and/or entertaining.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 11 2016, @05:48PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday February 11 2016, @05:48PM (#302834) Journal

    I want to respond to Marc Andreessen's comments about India yesterday. I found the comments deeply upsetting, and they do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all.

    India has been personally important to me and Facebook. Early on in my thinking about our mission, I traveled to India and was inspired by the humanity, spirit and values of the people. It solidified my understanding that when all people have the power to share their experiences, the entire world will make progress.

    Facebook stands for helping to connect people and giving them voice to shape their own future. But to shape the future we need to understand the past. As our community in India has grown, I've gained a deeper appreciation for the need to understand India's history and culture. I've been inspired by how much progress India has made in building a strong nation and the largest democracy in the world, and I look forward to strengthening my connection to the country.

    He gave no real reason. So I guess you can assume Zuck is displeased because outrage towards Andreessen's comments reflected badly on Facebook. It's an inconvenient truth.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 11 2016, @05:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 11 2016, @05:50PM (#302838)

    Wow, those are very nice words that his PR person wrote for him.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 11 2016, @06:58PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday February 11 2016, @06:58PM (#302884)

      > "I look forward to strengthening my connection to the country"

      Translated: there's a freaking Billion personal data sources I want to tap!!!! And they won't let me spend money to tap them at no cost to them! No Cost! Free stuff for poor people! How dare they refuse? Those bastards are more heartless than the idiots who tell penniless people in Flint that it's better to have bottled water than drink off their own taps!