Pink Floyd's Roger Waters attacked Facebook and its honcho Mark Zuckerberg after revealing that he turned down an "a huge amount of money' for the rights of the band's iconic 1979 anthem 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2' in an Instagram ad. Speaking at an event in New York City, Waters showed reporters a request from Facebook for the rights to use the song 'Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.'
Waters, one of the co-founders of the rock band, not only refused the offer but also launched a foulmouthed attack on Zuckerberg calling him a "little p***k." "It's a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me with an offer for a huge, huge amount of money, and the answer is "f*** you, no f***ing way,'" he said.
Wild Attack
Understandably, Waters is furious at Zuckerberg and Facebook. "I only mention that because this is an insidious movement of them to take over absolutely everything. I will not be a party to this bulls**t, Zuckerberg," said the 77-year-old bassist and composer at a recent pro-Julian Assange event.
However, he didn't stop there. Waters also made reference to Zuckerberg's FaceMash, a project he worked on before launching Facebook. Zuckerberg was studying at Harvard at that time. FaceMash allowed users to rate the appearance of various women on campus.
"How did this little pr**k who started off by saying, "She's pretty, we'll give her a four out of five; she's ugly, we'll give her a one," how did he get power in anything?" Waters asked.
"And yet here he is, one of the most powerful idiots in the world," he goes on to add.
The musician also claimed that Zuckerberg wants to "make Facebook and Instagram more powerful than it already is ... so that it can continue to censor all of us in this room and prevent this story about Julian Assange getting out into the general public so the general public can go, 'What? No. No More.'"
No Stopping Waters
Waters also read a heated letter stating his position on social-media monopolies and manipulation. He told reporters that he believed Facebook has been aggressively trying to censor stories surrounding Assange, who is currently jailed in the UK and is awaiting possible extradition to the United States for his role in publishing US Army intelligence leaks.
That said, this isn't the first time that Waters has been approached to use his jams for promotional purposes. In fact, in the mid-'70s, when the band was at its peak, Waters didn't think twice before providing the theme song for Dole bananas as well as an ad for the French soft drink Gini, according to Far Out Magazine.
However, there was a reason behind doing so, as it helped make rising concert ticket prices cheaper for their fans. Still, the experience reportedly resulted in the band refusing to allow their music to be used in the future in any advertisements that weren't for a "good cause."
A Facebook spokesperson, according to the DailyMail, later confirmed that Instagram's marketing team had indeed approached Waters for the usage rights of the song. However, he declined the offer and Facebook respects the decision of any artiste on whether or not to allow anyone to use their creations.
