UPDATED: At a recent pro-Julian Assange event, Roger Waters said Facebook offered him a big chunk of change to use the 1979 Pink Floyd hit “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” in an upcoming advertisement for Instagram.
“It arrived this morning, with an offer for a huge, huge amount of money,” Waters said. “And the answer is, ‘Fuck You. No fuckin’ way.’”
Waters continued, “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 bullshit, [Mark] Zuckerberg.”
“¡Vete a la chingada!”: @rogerwaters a Mark Zuckerberg. El músico contó que le ofrecieron “una gran cantidad de dinero” por permitir el uso de Another brick in the wall II para promover Instagram. Lo narró en un acto por la libertad de Julian Assange (@Wikileaks)#VideosLaJornada pic.twitter.com/gEVqaor8Eo
— La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) June 12, 2021
Waters pulled out a printed copy of Facebook’s request, reading, “We want to thank you for considering this project. We feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and so necessary today, which speaks to how timeless the work is.”
“And yet, they want to use it to make Facebook and Instagram even bigger and more powerful than it already is,” he responded, “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.’”
Waters then brought up FaceMash, the Hot or Not type site Zuckerberg created before Facebook that allowed students to compare the looks of women on campus.
“How did this little prick who started out as ‘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 any power?” Waters asked. “And yet here he is, one of the most powerful idiots in the world.”
According to a Facebook spokeswoman, Zuckerberg had nothing to do with the request to use the Pink Floyd song; the request to Waters originated from the Instagram marketing team. The Facebook rep also noted that companies regularly reach out to musicians about using their songs in advertising, and that Facebook respects the decision of artists about whether to work with them or not.