When Mark Zuckerberg found out Trump had won thanks to him (and didn't believe it)

Mark Zuckerberg is furious. The insinuation that he had any responsibility for the election result has him fuming when he arrives at the airport. We're about to fly to Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit . I'm nervous. It was my idea for Mark to travel to Lima for APEC . During my maternity leave, he sent me an email in which he finally took the initiative in international politics. Specifically, he'd been thinking about how the world is run:

I'd like to know more about this topic, about how the United Nations and the various institutions of international governance were created, what powers and mechanisms they have to achieve results, what their limits are and whether those limits are intended or whether these organizations are being marginalized, why they were created as a federation of nations and not as a democratically elected international body, and so on. One specific question I'm interested in is why no one is advocating for a more powerful international system or government. That is, the current system seems relatively weak: it has a small budget, it depends on countries rather than being elected or controlled by people around the world, and so on. Today, it seems that important countries , when interacting with the international system, can decide between only two positions: continue as before or increase isolationism. I'm curious why there isn't a third option, that of strengthening the system, and what it would take, in theory, to make it a reality. I'm looking for any recommendations on how to learn more about this: book recommendations, people to talk to or invite to dinner, and other resources to check out.

What I gather from all this is that Mark is noticing how Facebook's influence is growing around the world. Politicians from all over the world want to come and pay homage to him, just as they do to Rupert Murdoch, for example. He has a global network, more political capital, and more money than he can spend, and he's wondering how he can use it. What other institutions cross national borders? What powers do they have, compared to Facebook? In his speeches, Mark increasingly speaks of a "global community." He knows that Facebook has a budget larger than the gross domestic product ( GDP ) of many nations and that it's not "country-dependent." It could buy all the politicians in a country, or in many countries, if it decided to wield its power unreservedly.

My thought was that if Mark was thinking about using Facebook to do something different, something better, around the world, and he wanted to understand how the international system worked—or what its flaws were—he needed to see it up close. That's why I suggested going to APEC. It was bigger than the international summit I'd taken him to in Panama. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping would be there, and this time Mark's role wouldn't be as a salesman; he wouldn't be selling Internet.org or Facebook. I wanted to put him in situations he would find himself in if he were a head of state. In a way, I hoped that these political leaders would scold him a bit, open his eyes to the problems they have with Facebook, so that he would be forced to come face to face with the damaging effects the platform has in many countries.

If Mark was thinking about using Facebook to do something different, something better, around the world, he needed to take a closer look.

Turning over what Mark seemed to be imagining for himself on the world stage, a vision popped into my head of Mark presiding over a meeting of heads of state at APEC. A session where Mark and the world's most powerful leaders would settle scores and agree on a set of ground rules for the internet. It was ludicrous even to think about. No one would agree to put the CEO of a company on the same level as the world's most powerful heads of state and have him chair them. At the last major summit Mark had attended, the White House had even refused to let him come on stage to participate in a panel. But I told myself it was a good starting point for negotiations with APEC about Mark's participation. If I asked for this, as soon as they stopped laughing, they would at least consider granting me some of the other things I did have a chance of getting.

So I was surprised when, after months of negotiations, they granted my request. As we prepare to take off for Peru, I still can't believe this is actually going to happen—that Mark is going to preside over a meeting of presidents and prime ministers, just like in my vision . Although apparently we're not going to take off because Mark didn't bring his passport. A small group of Facebook executives is milling around the nondescript beige terminal, which looks more like a rental car depot for middle managers than a private jet for tech titans. Mark is pissed off. At this point, I can't tell if it's because Facebook is being blamed for the election result, because Trump won, because of the forgotten passport, or because I have to travel to Peru in the middle of it all. I worry it's the latter. He seemed eager to go when I proposed it. He even suggested we find out if the Obamas would want to go to Machu Picchu with him.

Whatever the reason, Mark blames other people for all these problems, even for leaving his passport behind. I suppose that's what it's like to live in a bubble, as he does. But a bubble presupposes a flimsy transparency, a diaphanous space that allows you to see a normal life on the other side. Whereas the place Mark inhabits is more of a thick, opaque dome, a shadowy fortress that separates him from the rest of the world. When you have so many other people doing things for you, both professionally and personally, you stop taking responsibility for anything. Max Weber said that political responsibility consists of dealing with the unintended consequences of your actions. Mark can't even take responsibility for leaving his passport at home, let alone influencing the US elections.

Andrea decides to take the fall, claiming it's her fault the passport isn't there and that she should be more vigilant about Mark's "household staff." Any suggestion that Mark might have thought a passport would be useful for a trip to South America is conspicuously absent.

"Sarah, could you contact the president of Peru to see if Mark can enter the country without a passport ?" Elliot suggests.

"Yes," Mark immediately agrees, "what a great idea."

“Even Mark Zuckerberg needs a passport ,” I scold Mark affectionately.

He's not amused. Luckily, before they can continue pressuring me to call the president of Peru, Mark realizes he's missing some of the medication he needs. The decision is made to delay the flight's departure while someone, not him, goes to get it. This isn't the first medical crisis of the trip . And not because of my ongoing health issues. One Sunday several months earlier, while I was on maternity leave, I received an urgent call from Elliot.

"It's because of Peru, things are dangerous. Mark and Priscilla are trying to be parents," he whispered to me, very seriously, even though it was a phone call and no one could hear us.

To me, it immediately seemed too intimate . As if we were courtiers allowed into the royal bedroom to witness the moment of conception.

“Great,” I said cautiously.

"Well, you can imagine the problem ," he murmured in a conspiratorial tone.

I interpreted the summit dates as coinciding with ovulation , but I didn't know if I wanted to have that much information. I'm sure the CEO's reproductive plans aren't part of my job description.

I didn't answer.

"Zika," Elliot added, after which he said there was no way Mark would be exposed to Zika or delay his plans for a second child. Mark had once told me he wanted a "tribe" of children, so I understood his reluctance to delay it.

Elliot had been talking to Mark, and current recommendations called for waiting three months after traveling to a Zika-infected area before trying to conceive, so either the trip was canceled or drastic measures had to be taken to protect him from possible infection.

At the time, there was barely any Zika in Lima. Neither Elliot nor I mentioned the fact that Facebook had sent me to ground zero of the Zika outbreak while I was pregnant, but it was palpable in the air. Elliot asked me to find out what the Peruvian president's office could do to prevent Mark from contracting Zika. Confidentially, of course. I assured him I would do everything possible.

Neither Elliot nor I mentioned the fact that Facebook had sent me to ground zero of the Zika outbreak while I was pregnant.

I actually didn't even know how you ask members of a presidential office to protect your CEO's sperm. Especially since I'd already asked them for a few things recently. I put it in the vaguest terms and made it seem like I was the one worried about Zika and the chances of getting pregnant. The lovely people in the Peruvian government I'd been working with were confused because they knew I'd only recently given birth, had been very sick, and was currently supposed to be on maternity leave... What kind of person was I? It was incredibly awkward, but I chose to let them believe I was very fertile and wanted a third child. It seemed easier, despite the embarrassment I felt. Of course, there was little they could do to help, despite their good intentions.

So Facebook considered extreme measures, or " Operation Perfect Sperm ." After a meeting about the Zika risk that didn't include me, Andrea sent me a photo of a head-to-toe mesh "mosquito suit" from an Army supply store that the team thought Mark should wear. I pictured Mark meeting President Obama , with Mark's face hidden behind the mesh of the suit, the president commenting on the texture of the mesh and the novelty of shaking hands through it, and even making some terrible pun like, "Now that's networking." I treated Andrea's suggestion as a joke and crossed my fingers that it was.

Things escalated after Mark spoke with the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about all possible methods to avoid the Zika virus. We changed our plans to minimize our time on the ground and decided to build a "controlled structure" at the APEC meeting site where ventilation, exposure to other people, and insect ingress could be monitored by Facebook. We discussed limited outdoor exposure, sealed rooms, and a controlled air supply. At first, I thought this must also be a joke, but before I knew it, I was negotiating with the Peruvians to lease Facebook a piece of land near the forum site.

We're a company that's been accused of "digital colonialism," and recently, a board member, Marc Andreessen, launched a series of tweets implying that India was better off under British colonial rule. Erecting a replica of Silicon Valley in Peru , on the site of the APEC summit, to meet with the heads of state of the world's most powerful countries didn't send the best image. But no one listened to my protests. In the end, a temporary Facebook structure was erected next to the venue where the forum will be held. It's more luxurious than any of the places where the heads of state will meet. It replicates Mark's Menlo Park conference room down to the last detail, including the snacks stocked in the kitchenette. The bubble in which Mark lives, until then metaphorical, becomes real with this temporary structure.

At the airport, after a few hours, we finally board the private plane. Mark sits in his leather seat, indignant. He can't stop talking about the election. He, Elliot, a woman from the communications team, and I sit in four seats facing each other. Mark and Elliot argue. The rest of the cabin occupants barely open their mouths. Elliot's communications team had prepared Mark for Techonomy, and Mark is still going crazy over the way what he said there—that it's "a crazy idea" that Facebook could influence the election—has been universally dismissed, even mocked. A New York Times headline from that time sums it up nicely: " Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Accept Reality ." I agree.

Mark stands by what he said. He believes it! It's fascinating that someone who founded one of the most powerful companies in the world, a business founded on the idea that it can influence the brand of toothpaste you buy, has such a hard time accepting that the platform on which the president-elect has spent huge sums of money could influence the election. But he won't budge from that. After trying and abandoning the "let Mark be Mark" communication plan, Elliot's mission on this flight is to get him out of his denial phase and agree on what their position on this issue should be going forward.

Elliot is able to see this crisis in a way Mark cannot. Over the course of the ten-hour flight to Lima, Elliot patiently explains to Mark all the ways Facebook made it possible for Donald Trump to win the election. Hell, it's both pretty compelling and pretty disturbing. Facebook staffers were embedded with Trump's San Antonio campaign team for months, along with programmers, copywriters, media buyers, network engineers, and data scientists. A Trump team member named Brad Parscale ran the operation with seconded Facebook staffers, and they basically invented a new way to run a political campaign to spam their way to the White House : sending misinformation to targeted voters, posting inflammatory news stories, and pumping out fundraising pitches. Boz, the head of the advertising team, called it the "best digital campaign I've ever seen from any advertiser, period."

Elliot walks Mark through all the ways the combined Facebook and Parscale team targeted certain users and tweaked ads to get more engagement, using data tools we'd designed for commercial advertisers. As I understand it, the Trump campaign had compiled a database, called Project Alamo, containing the profiles of more than 220 million people in the United States. It included all sorts of online and offline behaviors, including whether they had a gun license, whether they were registered voters, their purchasing and credit card history, what websites they visited, what car they drove, where they lived, and the last time they voted. The campaign used Facebook's "custom targeting from custom lists" system to match people in that database with their Facebook profiles. The platform's "lookalike targeting" algorithm then found people on Facebook with "common qualities" that resembled Trump supporters. So if Trump voters liked, say, a certain type of truck, the tool would find other people who liked trucks but hadn't yet decided how to vote to show the ads to.

They then combined their targeting strategy with data from their market research on message formulation. People most likely to react positively to "building a wall" received that type of message. Mothers worried about childcare saw ads explaining that Trump wanted " 100 percent tax-deductible childcare ." Then there was a whole process of repeatedly tweaking the message, the imagery, and the color of the "Donate" buttons, because, apparently, slightly different messages resonate with different audiences. The campaign had tens of thousands of ads running at any given time, ultimately amounting to millions of variations. All of them were tested using Facebook's brand surveys, which measure whether users have absorbed the ad's messages and adjust them accordingly. Many of these ads contained inflammatory misinformation that triggered reactions and lowered the ad price. The more people react to an ad, the less it costs. Facebook's tools and white-glove home delivery service generated incredibly precise segmentation of both the message and the audience, the holy grail of advertising.

Elliot patiently explains to Mark all the ways Facebook made it possible for Donald Trump to win the election.

Trump vastly outspent Clinton on Facebook ads. In the weeks leading up to the election, Trump was consistently one of Facebook's top advertisers worldwide. He could afford to do this because data targeting enabled him to raise millions each month in campaign contributions through Facebook. In fact, Facebook was the Trump campaign's primary source of revenue. Parscale's team also ran voter suppression campaigns. They targeted three distinct groups of Democrats: young women, white liberals who might like Bernie Sanders, and Black voters. All of them received so-called dark posts, which were not public and only they could see. They would be invisible to researchers or anyone else looking at their page. The idea was to give them information that would dissuade them from voting for Hillary. One of those ads, aimed at Black audiences, was a cartoon based on a 1996 quote from him saying that African Americans were "superpredators."

In the end, Black voter turnout was lower than the Democrats had expected. In an election decided by a handful of votes in several key states, such things mattered. Mark is quietly absorbing it all. At first, he's skeptical and reticent, but gradually his attitude becomes curious. He begins to ask questions to try to understand the mechanics of what happened. He doesn't seem to mind that the platform is being used in this way, not at all. If anything, he seems to admire its ingenuity. As if he thinks these tools were there from the beginning for anyone to use in this way and that it's very smart of him to have figured it out.

I'm horrified to hear it put like this. I'd heard it before, a few days after the election, at Sheryl's business meeting, and I had the same reaction, a feeling of uncomfortable personal revulsion knowing I work at the company responsible for all this. I can't imagine how I would feel if I had founded it. For a moment, I think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown right there on the private plane and end up crash-landing somewhere in Mexico. How ugly. How sad to be behind something like this. When all this was explained to Sheryl at the business meeting, once she understood what the Trump campaign had done, her immediate response wasn't horrified, but to say it was brilliant and innovative, and, "Do you think it would be possible to hire that Brad Parscale from Trump to work at Facebook?" No one said anything. After an awkward moment, chastened, she changed her approach:

—No, of course, that's silly. I could get any job I wanted right now. — A pause. —But maybe there are other people from the Trump campaign we could bring to Facebook?

Mark seems to come to a bleaker conclusion, but not immediately. During the flight, he continues to mull over everything Elliot has explained to him. He continues to be reticent from time to time, but he's definitely intrigued. However, before we land in Peru, Elliot not only needs Mark to accept how instrumental and decisive Facebook was in helping Trump win the election ; he also needs to convince him to tell the world that he understands the role Facebook played in the election, and that things are going to change. Elliot wants Mark to make this public on his Facebook page when we land, and he wants him to include a concrete action plan listing the changes the platform will make to prevent misinformation. That's what the world knows and what people are outraged about: the presence of fake news on Facebook.

Mark is dead set on posting anything, but halfway through the ten-hour flight, he starts talking with Elliot about what such a post might say, if it were to be made. They begin to draft a plan. When we land in Peru, Mark and Elliot are still locked in their argument. Mark resists every course of action Elliot suggests. They continue to argue as we get off the plane. They argue in the car on the way to the hotel. They argue in the elevator on the way to Mark's suite. They continue to argue in the suite. To Mark, the very idea of posting seems like an insane capitulation. Blackmail by the press, which blames Facebook for "stealing their livelihood." As far as he's concerned, the press is inventing scandal after scandal about Facebook and trying everything to damage the company for the way it's decimated their business, and in this case, they've finally found something to grab onto because they think it might work.

Elliot tells Mark that if he thinks that's the underlying problem, then we should give media outlets a larger percentage of Facebook's revenue. Buy them out. Or at least establish a fairer split with them. A year ago, Facebook created something called "Instant Articles," which allows ad revenue to be shared with newspapers that publish content on the platform. "We could go much further," Elliot tells him. Mark doesn't like that.

A few employees watch them argue and make suggestions. I, on the other hand, say nothing. What good would it do? Mark has seen that Facebook has tipped the scales toward Trump in the election and is discussing a series of possible changes to Facebook that also won't get to the heart of the matter. Hours after arriving at the hotel, Mark posts a post, and it's so unsubtle it's almost laughable: Bottom line: We take misinformation very seriously [...]. We've been working on this problem for a long time, and we take our responsibility very seriously. We've made significant progress, but there's still more work to be done.

This is a very misleading post. In the following sentence, for example, the first part is from Mark and the second from Elliot: "While the percentage of misinformation is relatively small, we have a lot of work to do on our roadmap." But Mark makes it clear in the post that Facebook needs to get better at detecting misinformation and can't rely on users reporting it first. Elliot has pressed Mark to announce that we will work with journalists and fact-checking organizations. Mark doesn't commit to this. Instead, he makes a vague promise to "learn" from these organizations and to "work with journalists and others in the news industry to gather their perspective," particularly on fact-checking. He also doesn't commit to labeling news we know to be false, but says we are "considering" it. When some of the reactions mention the date and time of the post, Mark decides to comment on it: "For those wondering why I posted at 9:30 PM, that's the time I landed and arrived in [sic] Lima last night ."

One of the selling points I used for the APEC trip was the opportunity for Mark to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping . Mark has been trying to meet with him formally for years, without success, and his desire for one was only intensified by the blunder in Seattle when Mark posted a photo of the back of Xi’s head. While I wasn’t in favor of Facebook’s push into China , I did see value in a meeting between the two, even if it was just a reality check for Mark.

A formal bilateral meeting was impossible, but perhaps I could arrange some sort of "spontaneous meeting" or "apart." To arrange a spontaneous meeting, I needed to position Mark near where President Xi was. State dinners were obviously out of the question after our experience in Panama. And President Xi, like the Pope, wasn't going to make any overtures to Mark. But I managed to get Mark a speaking slot just before President Xi's and convince APEC to use the " connectivity revolution " as the theme. More importantly, I got us backstage. This gives us the best chance in years of a Mark-Xi meeting. We discussed several ways to make that happen and arrived at the venue earlier than reasonable to allow as much time as possible for the contact. I'm ready to play facilitator again, only this time without the mojitos.

When our security team informs us that Xi is on his way, we leave the dressing room and head into the vast space where the event will be held, ready for our "spontaneous" meeting. Mark gets ready—it's one of the most momentous moments of his career—and at that moment, Xi 's security team appears. It's an army of men in identical gray uniforms, marching past us. Mark stares at them in disbelief, his mouth agape.

They arrive by the dozens. It's almost comical. Just when it seems there can't be any more, they keep appearing. As Xi approaches, the dense line of men moves into formation. They create an impenetrable dividing line between his dressing room and ours that stretches all the way to the entrance. A human Chinese wall. President Xi advances so concealed that he doesn't even risk making eye contact with Mark. The troops are now so still and quiet that we can hear their footsteps arriving. Soon he is safely in his dressing room, the door closes, and the human wall quietly retreats, leaving Mark, me, and the rest of the small Facebook team loitering outside the dressing room and wondering what just happened. I find it hard not to admire Xi for beating us so fair and square. Clearly, the Chinese delegation approached the organizers, just as I did, and asked, "Where will the president be placed backstage? Who else will be there?" And when they learned that person would be Mark Zuckerberg, they took precautions. I'm about to praise his foresight and the dedication required—all those troops on the ground!—to make it happen, because I've never seen anything like it, but then I realize Mark has felt insulted. His pride is hurt. He's not used to people going out of their way to avoid him.

"Well, I guess there won't be any asides," he laments awkwardly.

Nobody knows what to answer.

Mark delivers his speech. Hours later, we head to a different stage, where he will preside over the heads of state session . We had planned to return to the bubble in between to prepare for the session, but Mark has no interest in that. Gone are the days when he peppered me with questions about voting systems , term limits, the hidden agendas and motives of presidents and prime ministers. We're back to the days when Mark wouldn't tolerate more than a sentence or two whispered in his ear before entering the meeting, or a written report no longer than he can read at a glance on his phone screen.

Mark has been trying to formally meet with Xi Jinping for years, without success.

Within the Facebook bubble there is a constant hustle and business executives, and the talk revolves around the consequences of the elections. No one makes the slightest case for Diego Dzodan, the vice president of Facebook for Latin America, who locks there waiting for someone to notice his presence. I asked Diego to come from Brazil in part because he is our greatest rank employee in the region, but especially because he went to jail on the name of Facebook and deserves a face -to -face encounter with the CEO. As in the case of the meeting with the Chinese delegation, I see interest in the fact that Mark faces in person the problems Diego represents.

When Mark's meeting room clears, I make Diego enter. I expected Mark to approach and greet him, but it is immediately clear that he has no idea who Diego is. I present it and Mark dedicates his classic languid smile. The poor man has literally played the guy and has gone to prison on Facebook in Brazil, but Mark looks inexpressive until I remember him. An extremely uncomfortable situation is generated in which Mark is very stiff with Diego, without the passion that put his "moving" Facebook publication. Soon everyone is clear that you don't feel like talking to him.

Diego ends up for a new crisis in which Elliot is required. Someone recalled that it is expected that Ivanka Trump deliver one of the breakthrough awards awards, a gala organized by Mark that aims to turn scientists into stars. Suddenly, after Trump's choice, Mark doesn't want her there, but nobody knows how to disinvitate her. They are considering several ways to send a message through Yuri Milner, from Jared Kushner's brother and his bride, Karlie Kloss. Diego returns to his corner.

When we arrive at the main hall for the round table with presidents and prime ministers, the first one that approaches us is, of course, the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key. Much has changed in the five years after the day Mark left his meeting room and told John Key and me that he didn't want to meet John Key . Much has changed since the time when world leaders put nervous and sweat Mark, since he doubted they were important to him or Facebook.

Key tries to interrupt Mark's conversation and Ellio about Facebook publication about the elections . It seems that Mark takes a while to realize that John Key is directing the word, and not just muttering by his side.

"What are you saying?" - Mark asks me, while John Key continues to speak to him, perhaps with the intention of translating his Neozyous accent to American English.

"Imposites, Mark." He wants you to pay taxes in New Zealand.

"Oh." - Mark nods and turns back to Elliot.

The president of Mexico joins our group.

"Do you know the president of Mexico?" - I ask John Key.

"Look at Enrique, Sarah, please," Peña Nieto quarrels me, interrupting John Key in his attempt to get Mark's attention.

The president of Mexico had another commitment for this time and has come to apologize personally against Mark for missing the round table, and to take a picture with him. Canadian President Justin Trudeau approaches and also requests a photo, just like the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull. It is as if Mark were a kings ugidor and they were there to bend their knee. I drag Mark to the main hall for the session he will preside. It is an immense space, with large red screens reminiscent of the Chinese flag and project the APEC logo. In the middle of the room, a circle of wooden tables with microphones, chairs and plates with the names of each of the presidents and prime ministers have been installed. In the center is Mark Zuckerberg. I feel just behind him, and Elliot stands by my side.

It is as if Mark were a kings ugidor and they were there to bend their knee

Once installed in front of all the heads of state , I am surprised to see so many family faces. They are people that I have met with Mark or in the exercise of my position. We know that many of the world leaders with whom we have forged a relationship are reaching the end of their mandate; Some have already left, and in some cases we already have a good relationship with their successors. It clashes to check the transitory of power. And yet, it would be conceivable for Mark to continue to occupy that same position before world leaders for another fifty years. You will see all those presidents and prime ministers and all those who will come later. As the Queen of England .

After Mark's introductory words, I get ready for the presidents and prime ministers to make us have a hard time. A few of them have told journalists who see that session as an opportunity to " speak face to face with Mark Zuckerberg " about taxes, misinformation, the disappearance of local journalism, privacy and harmful effects on childhood.

And all that before he was chosen with Facebook help. I prepare for an adjustment of accounts.

But not only do not make us have a hard time, but that is a foam bath .

"How do we create the next Facebook in our country?" - It worries a prime minister in a show question.

—How does connectivity in the real government of everyday life help? Why should it be a priority for administration? - Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile , one of the first to formally oppose the Internet.org.

Before Mark has the opportunity to address the issue, the single Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau , intervenes to explain how Internet can be used to distribute social programs electronically, how it is gained in productivity if the benefits can be paid directly in bank accounts, without the need to go to a bank, and how the social infrastructure is being transferred to the online. You are repeating some of the main discussion issues that we have sent to you in the conversations prior to the session.

While several prime ministers and presidents intervene to show their tacit support to Mark, I see that the newly elected president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte - who attributed his electoral triumph to Facebook - is throwing a little head without dissimilar.

When we started planning this trip to Peru, Mark was obsessed with visiting the Machu Picchu with President Obama

What is rare is that no one mentions Trump's victory or the role played by Facebook. Later I realize that it makes sense. All those politicians want to be chosen. It is likely that, like Elliot, Sheryl and practically everyone except Mark (although he also seems to change his mind about it), they believe that Facebook has had a fundamental role in it, and do not want to make anger the guy who has made it possible. I am sure that Trump's choice has enlarged Mark in his eyes.

Mark can lead you to power and they want to continue power. They understand that one of their most important assets - his voice - is a political capital that, ultimately, is Mark who controls. So the whole session is passed by by gorping the pill and proposing ways to collaborate with Facebook. But Mark doesn't seem to be assimilating it. Despite being presided over a session of heads of state, it is as if he had the head elsewhere. He looks at her everly and barely listens. And when he does, he turns to me to ask me what is the answer and even what the question is. He doesn't really like him. Suddenly I see myself moderating a question and answers session with the leaders of the free world. I don't believe what is happening.

It's weird, because instead of enjoying what my career should be, I am also self -absorbed. I have dedicated a lot of time to try to feel comfortable with presidents and prime ministers, and to act as a key piece in the global stage. To preside over an act with the most powerful people in the world should be the climax of the career of both. But what I see is that, the more comfortable it feels, the less cares. As its importance increases, your concern decreases. It travels through that session in the face of some of the most influential people in the world as if nothing imported. With disinterest.

Obama has not been able to be present at the round table. When we told Mark that he had a previous commitment, he replied: "I suppose it does not matter, his mandate is almost over." What seemed to indicate that it did not matter, although others knew it was not. When we started planning this trip to Peru, Mark was obsessed with visiting the Machu Picchu with President Obama as a "farewell road trip." As if it were so easy to add a presidential excursion to one of the seven wonders of the world to a round table. Before having time to react, Mark offers out of his Zika free bubble and cross Lima to meet with Obama .

We arrive at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where Obama has just celebrated a question and answer session, one of its last international public events. Compared to the sophisticated Popup of Facebook in the APEC, that is a gigantic and rammed place, full of discovered paint buildings and rotten wood. With Obama about to leave the position and Mark fresh out of the session with the heads of state of the APEC , Mark is seen quite loose upon entering. The balance of power is changing. We are not allowed to accompany Mark to the meeting. We are waiting for it, a few of us when suddenly leaves the building to large strides, even more indignant than what was at the beginning of the trip. There is a path on the way through the university campus as far as vehicles are parked. Mark advances fast , smoke but without saying anything. By the time we congregate again in the minivan, he is furious. It is hard for us to get back into ourselves again, but nobody makes the classic joke of "but, but, but ..., I am the president of Guatemala". We had prepared Mark for a meeting that would focus on Obama's legacy, but it has been a meeting focused on Mark.

"I have told him that false news has not been a serious problem on Facebook"

"False noticias, I didn't stop talking about false news and misinformation," says Mark sparking. He doesn't understand anything. He is wrong, he doesn't know how much. He has said that Facebook is being a destructive force worldwide. And it seems to me that he really believes it.

Elliot shakes his head to show his misunderstanding.

- "You are not taking it seriously," he said. I am not taking those threats seriously. - Mark trembles, furious. I have told him that false news has not been a serious problem on Facebook. It is less than one percent of what appears on the platform. It has not been the false news that has opted the elections in favor of Trump. And that, being realistic, is something that does not have an easy solution. Let's see, what do you want me to do?

Elliot coincides with him.

"I think we would be immediately in the face of problems of freedom of expression with any measure we take."

"And you know what is the most important thing for Obama ?" - Mark continues without giving credit. The next elections ... is already thinking about that!

"When they have just lost these, " Elliot points out.

"Yes, he told me that" he warns me "that we have to make drastic changes or things will go worse in the next presidential campaign. That "warns me" - repeats, outraged because Obama has criticized the role that Facebook has been semi -drained in the elections and also in other areas. Mark reproduces fragments of the conversation as if trying to discipline them. Obama's criticisms have caught him by surprise and took him out of his boxes, and does not stop repeating that he is no longer anyone, that he is at the end of his mandate, as if that were a balm for the wound. But it seems to me that just that is what has allowed Obama to speak to Mark so much freedom.

Under that anger, it shows that Mark is sincerely hurt. I think Obama liked him , and that he respects him. Mark is very little accustomed to someone more powerful who criticizes him. Because, in addition, there are few that fit in that description.